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JERRY McAULEY. 



JERRY McAULEY 



ps !«« m& Work 



WITH 



INTRODUCTION 

By the Rev. S. IREN^US PRIME, D.D. 



PERSONAL SKETCHES 
By a. S. hatch, Esq. 



Edited by Rev. R. M. OFFORD 






NEW YORK . ">-^' " -' :' 
MRS. JERRY McAULEY, 104 West 32D St. 
WARD & DRUMMOND, 116 Nassau St. 



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Copyright, 1885, 
By MARIA McAULEY. 



PREFACE. 



During the summer preceding his death Jerry McAuley 
was planning for the preparation of a somewhat extensive 
account of God's deahngs with and through him. He pur- 
posed waiting only for cooler weather before commencing 
his task. But his death intervened ere the work had even 
been begun. We have thus been deprived of many of the 
records of the richest displays of God's grace in both the 
Water Street and the Cremorne Missions. But enough have 
been printed in the following pages to arouse the deepest 
interest of Christian hearts. These records serve to show that, 
in the dispensation of grace and graces, God is no respecter of 
persons. As in nature the most resplendent gems are found 
among the most uninviting surroundings, so grace gathers 
out of the horrible pit and the miry clay many a bright 
gem for the Saviour's diadem. And God works through 
lowly instrumentalities. In this respect his choice is often 
contrary to human judgment. Jerry was a very unpromis- 
ing sinner to begin with, but God in His grace saved him. 
After his conversion he seemed by no means a promising saint, 
and ministers and others engaged in mission work did not 
encourage him to beHeve that he was called to labor in that 
direction. But God had called him none the less, and owned 
and blessed him beyond all human conception or computa- 



iv Preface. 

tion. It is indeed true that we have this treasure in 
earthen vessels, that the glory may be the Lord's. 

It is fitting that acknowledgments be made here of indebt- 
edness to those friends who have helped to produce this 
volume. The first three chapters are taken from the little 
work "Transformed," edited by Mrs. Helen E. Brown. 
Three of the later chapters are devoted to personal recollec- 
tions of the worker and his work, by A. S. Hatch, Esq. There 
are no more interesting chapters in the book than these, and 
they greatly enhance its value. That gentleman has placed 
us under further obligations by the care and patience with 
which he has read every line of this volume, revising where 
necessary — a task which his long and intimate acquaintance 
with Jerry enabled him to do better than anyone else could 
have done it. To the Rev. S^ Irenaeus Prime, D.D., thanks 
are due for the '' Introduction." His reminiscences of Jerry, 
couched in such tender and touching- language, will serve to 
awaken at the start a deep interest in the records which 
follow. 

My own part of the work has been a very modest one. 
Collecting such material as already existed, and which best 
served to present Jerry the outcast, Jerry the transformed, 
Jerry the successful worker for souls, the matter has been 
prepared for the printer without any attempt to give the 
facts in any setting of beautiful language. The labor has 
been a simple but very pleasant one. To have helped in any 
way to publish the story of grace as it triumphed in and 
through Jerry McAuley is an honor greatly esteemed, and for 
which the heart feels sincerely grateful to God. It is in- 
deed to be wished that He may be glorified in the record as 
He was in its subject. 

May Christians who read these pages be encouraged to 



Preface, v 

work for the salvation of the most outcast of their fellow- 
beings ! May many of those who are as yet unsaved be 
led by these records to seek Jerry McAuley's Saviour, the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Of that blessed Redeemer it is written 
in God's Book, the Bible, " He is able also to save them to 
the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever 
liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb. vii. 25). His 
own words are : "■ Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest " (Matt. xi. 28). 

The Editor. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Transformed „ 9 

II. Struggles and Temptations 20 

III. Jerry becomes a Missionary 36 

IV. Trials and Triumphs 48 

V. Water Street as it Was 58 

VI. More about Water Street 69 

VII. Trophies of Grace 78 

VIII. A Mistake and What Came of It 88 

IX. Evil Schemes Frustrated 100 

X. The Cremorne Mission 109 

XL Another Chapter of Testimonies 120 

XII. Called Home 133 

XIII. On the Old Spot 145 

XIV. Characteristic Sketches and Personal Recollections 

of Jerry McAuley 156 

XV. Recollections — Continued. 162 

XVI. Recollections — Concluded 175 

XVII. Every Evening in Water Street 183 

XVIII. Water Street Meeting — Concluded. 195 

XIX. Jerry McAuley's Cremorne Mission 209 

XX. Jerry as a Journalist and Correspondent 



)00 



INTRODUCTION 



By Rev. S. Iren^us Prime, D.D. 



Returning home after my summer recess in 1884, I had 
not been in my house five minutes when a gentleman called 
to ask me to conduct the funeral of Jerry McAuley. 

" Is he dead ?" I asked in a burst of mingled surprise and 
sorrow. Before going away I had seen and heard the mani- 
fest signs of consumption, and it was not wonderful that 
such a life as he led in the days of his wickedness should 
make him an easy prey to disease. He did not live out half 
his days, though grace did come to the everlasting life of 
his soul. 

But it made me very sad. I did not know that this 
strange man had such a place in my heart that now he was 
dead I should feel as if the city and the world and I had 
lost a friend. Jerry is dead ! Well, what was he to me that 
I must grieve that I shall see his face no more ? He came 
often to see me, and said little when he was there, but 
seemed to love to sit near me, and look up with a tearful 
eye and a pensive face, and a heart, I doubt not, full of sweet 
hope and holy love. We never talked of the old, old times 
when he was a thief and a robber, when he was a drunkard 



viii Introduction. 

and blasphemer, when he was a convict in prison, and 
afterwards an outcast and an outlaw. It is not in my 
memory that a word ever passed between us about those 
terrible days and nights of sin and shame, when he won dis- 
tinction among the criminal classes as one of the worst of 
men, a dangerous character, unfit to be at large — as unfit to 
live as he was unprepared to die. It has always been a mar- 
vel to me that men professing to be reformed from loath- 
some habits should revel in the recital of their past sins, as 
if they were heroes who had come out of a great battle, and 
were now victors to be crowned and counted worthy of 
honor. Jerry McAuley was not so. He kept in mind the 
pit from which he was dug, but the memory of it filled him 
with penitence and pain. He would speak of it when the 
fact of his rescue would help a perishing brother to struggle 
for deliverance; but he loved rather when with me to speak 
of the life that he now lived — *' yet not I, but Christ liveth 
in me : I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, 
and gave himself for me." Delivered from the powers of 
darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, 
this poor sinner, clothed and in his right mind, had put 
away the old man with his lusts, and now a new man in 
Christ Jesus was striving to walk humbly and softly before 
God. He never seemed confident that he might not be de- 
livered again into the hand of Satan, to be buffeted for a 
season; but he sought sustaining grace and found it day by 
day, till the convicted sinner was transformed into a re- 
deemed soul by the Spirit of God and the victory of the 
grave. 

The next day was the Sabbath. The funeral was to be 
in the afternoon. As the hour approached — and indeed all 
the day — my thoughts had been dwelling on the fact that 



Introduction. ix 

New York has no consciousness of the loss it has met : the 
city knows not that one of the most useful men in it, one 
of its most remarkable, wonderful men, is to be buried to- 
day. Very few know or care about Jerry McAuley ; we are 
going to the Broadway Tabernacle to talk of what he was 
and what he has done, to a little congregation that will 
gather there : if it were Dr. Taylor, the beloved and honored 
pastor, the house would be crowded and the mourners would 
go about the streets ; but poor Jerry — he is dead, and who 
will be there to weep with us over his remains? Ah, how 
little did I know the place that he filled in the heart of this 
vast city! I was to conduct the funeral, and went early to 
complete the arrangements. As I turned down from the 
Fifth Avenue through Thirty-fourth Street, I saw a vast mul- 
titude standing in the sunshine, filling the streets and the 
square in front of the Tabernacle. Astonished at the spec- 
tacle, and wondering they did not go and take seats in the 
church, I soon found that the house was packed with peo- 
ple so that it was impossible for me to get within the door. 
Proclamation was made that the clergy who were to officiate 
were on the outside, and a passage was made for them to 
enter in. What could be more impressive and expressive 
of the estimate set upon the man and his work! There is 
no other Christian worker in the city who would have called 
out these uncounted thousands in a last tribute of love and 
honor of his memory. And then eloquent lips spoke of him 
and the great good done by him in fields of labor uninvit- 
ing, and often repelling those who care for the souls of. the 
perishing among us. It was said that there is no one pastor 
in New York who is doing the work of this humble man 
— no pastor who will leave a wider vacancy when he falls on 
the high places in his field of duty. 



X Intro duction. 

To read the story of his Hfe and work is not like the 
romance born of a lively fancy, for it is far more strange, 
unreal, incredible, than the novel of the period. It involves 
the supernatural. It has to do directly with the powers of 
the world to come. Reading it, still more going into one of 
the meetings where lost men and women come to be saved, 
brings one at once into the midst of agencies that imply 
for their power and success the immediate, direct, personal 
presence and working influence of the Holy Spirit. If this 
work is not of God, it is nothing ; worse than nothing — it is 
an awful farce. To me it is a divine reality. It was no 
fanaticism that in the days of the apostles led men to cry 
out " What must I do to be saved ;'* and when I have sat in the 
midst of publicans and harlots, convicts and thieves, drunk- 
ards and other vile and wretched human beings down so 
low in misery and shame that no human arm is long enough 
to reach them or strong enough to raise and save them ; 
when I have heard them in broken accents, amid sobs and 
tears, tell what the grace of God has done for them, how it 
had brought husbands and wives together in peace and 
comfort, with happy children around them, after liquor and 
crime and gaunt want had broken up the household ; when 
I have heard scores and scores of such testimonies ascribing 
all their salvation to Him who loved them and died for 
them, lost and ruined by sin — the tears have run down 
like rivers of waters from mine eyes, and I have prayed that 
hundreds and thousands of preachers of righteousness like 
Jerry McAuley might be taken from prison to go in the 
name of Jesus to seek and to save them that are lost. 

It is a good thing to write and print and spread the life 
of such a man as the hero of this volume. It may kindle 
the flame in many other hearts. Christians in other walks 



Introduction. xi 

of life than he trod may be stirred to better living. And 
(may God in infinite mercy grant it !) some poor, sinning 
soul, some wretched and sinking soul, some poor sinner, 
almost as bad as Jerry was, may read it in his extremity, 
and cry out with this ransomed prisoner, " Lord save me, I 
perish." 



To 

MARIA, 

THE WELL BELOVED AND LOVING WIFE AND TRUE HELPMEET, WHO FAITHFULLY LABORED 

SIDE BY SIDE WITH JERRY, SHARING ALL THE TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS OF 

HIS REDEEMED LIFE, AND WHO BRAVELY TOOK UP HIS 

WORK WHERE HE LAID IT DOWN, WHEN 

THE LORD CALLED HIM HOME, 

2Cf){s 6olume is rcgpectfullg lieUicatrt fig 

THE EDITOR. 



JERRY MCAULEY. 



CHAPTER I. 

TRANSFORMED. 

" Our young life had dark beginning, 
Helpless and alone we lay ; 
Knowing only sin and sorrow, 

Till the Saviour passed that way." 

The following autobiographical sketch of Jerry McAuley 
and the beginning of his Christian work was written in 
1875, mainly from Jerry's dictation, and was widely circu- 
lated and read at the time, under the title of " Transformed ; 
or, The History of a River Thief." With a careful revision, 
and with some additional facts relating to the early part of 
Jerry's redeemed life and the origin of the Mission in 
Water Street, supplied in their proper connection by a 
loving hand, it is here reproduced as the most fitting 
introduction to the present volume. 



I do not attempt this record of my life from any feeling 
of vain-glory, or any craving for notoriety. Neither is it 
because I have had a remarkable history. I have been a 
great sinner, and have found Jesus a great Saviour ; and this 
\s why I would tell my story, that others may be led tQ 



lo Disadvantages in Youth. 

adore and seek the blessed Friend who saved, and has thus 
far kept me by his grace. 

I was born in Ireland. Our family was broken up by sin, 
for my father was a counterfeiter, and left home to escape 
the law, before I knew him. I was placed at a very early 
age in the family of my grandmother, who was a devout 
Romanist. My first recollections of her are of her counting 
her beads, and kissing the floor for penance. I would take 
the opportunity while she was prostrated upon her face, to 
throw things at her head, in my mischievous play, and when 
she rose from her knees, it was to curse and swear at me. 
At such times I can distinctly remember thinking, though 
I could not have formed the thought into words, *'What 
sort of religion is this that requires such foolish worship, 
and allows such sinful ways?" I can trace my infidelity to 
Rome to just these incidents. 

I was never taught or sent to school, but left to have my 
own way; to roam about in idleness, doing mischief con- 
tinually, and suffering from the cruel and harsh treatment 
of those who had the care of me. 

At the age of thirteen I was sent to this country, to the 
care of a married sister in New York City. Here I ran 
errands in the family, and assisted my brother-in-law in his 
business, and soon, by the practice of little tricks, became 
well used to dishonesty, and was as great a rogue as one of 
my years could be. After a while I felt I could live by 
my own wits, and left my sister's home to take care of 
myself. I took board in a family in Water Street, where 
were two young men with whom I associated myself in 
business. I earned what I could, and stole the rest, to 
supply my daily wants. 

We had a boat, by means of which we boarded vessels 



Sent to State Prison, 1 1 

in the night, stealing whatever we could lay our hands on. 
Here I began my career as a river-thief. In the daytime 
we went up into the city and sold our ill-gotten goods, 
and with the proceeds dressed up, and then spent our time, 
as long as our money lasted, in the vile dens of Water 
Street, practising all sorts of wickedness. Here I learned 
to be a prize-fighter, and by degrees, rapid degrees, rose 
through all the grades of vice and crime, till I became a 
terror and nuisance in the Fourth Ward. 

I was only nineteen years of age when I was arrested for 
highway robbery — a child in years, but a man in sin. I 
knew nothing of the criminal act which was charged to 
my account ; but the rumsellers and inhabitants of the 
Fourth Ward hated me for all my evil ways, and were glad 
to get rid of me. So they swore the robbery on me, and 
I couldn't help myself. I had no friends, no advocate at 
court (it is a bad thing, sinners, not to have an advocate 
at court), and without any just cause I was sentenced to 
fifteen years in State prison. I burned with vengeance; 
but what could I do ? I was handcuffed, and sent in the 
cars to Sing-Sing. 

That ride was the saddest hour of my life. I looked 
back on my whole past course, on all my hardships, my 
misery and sins, and gladly would I have thrown myself 
aut before the advancing train, and ended my life. It was 
not sorrow for sin that possessed me, but a heavy weight 
seemed to press me down when I thought of the punish- 
ment I had got to suffer for my wrong-doings, and an 
indignant, revengeful feeling for the injustice of my 
sentence. Fifteen years of hard labor in a prison to look 
forward to, and all for a crime I was as innocent of as the 
babe unborn. I knew I had done enough to condemn me. 



1 ^ Resolves on Obedience, 

if it were known ; but others, as bad as I, were at liberty, 
and I was suffering the penalty for one who was at that 
hour roaming at will, glorying in his lucky escape from 
punishment, and caring nothing for the unhappy dog who 
was bearing it in his stead. How my heart swelled with 
rage, and then sank like lead, as I thought of my helpless- 
ness in the hands of the law, without a friend in the world. 

I concluded, however, before I reached the end of that 
short journey, that my best way was to be obedient to 
prison rules, do the best I could under the circumstances, 
and trust that somebody would be raised up to help me. 

When I arrived at the prison — I shall never forget it — 
the first thing that attracted my attention was the sentence 
over the door: *' The way of transgressors is hard." Though 
I could not read very well, I managed to spell that out. It 
was a familiar sentence, which I had heard a great many 
times. All thieves and wicked people know it well, and 
they know, too, that it is out of the Bible. It is a well- 
worn proverb in all the haunts of vice, and one confirmed 
by daily experience. And how strange it is that, knowing 
so well that the way is hard, the transgressors will still go 
in it. 

But God was more merciful to me than man. His pure 
eyes had seen all my sin, and yet he pitied and loved me, 
and stretched out his hand to save me. And his wonderful 
way of doing it was to shut me up in a cell within those 
heavy stone walls. There's many a one beside me who 
will have cause to thank God for ever and ever that he 
was shut up in a prison. 

I was put to the carpet-weaving business, and for two 
years not a word could be said against me. All the keepers 
and guards spoke well of me. I minded my work, and was 



Life in Prison. 13 

quiet and orderly. I used to say my prayer — the Lord's 
Prayer — every day, from a feeling that it was right to say it, 
and that in some way or other it would do me good. I 
tried to learn to read and write, and improved very much, 
more especially in reading. Then I got cheap novels and 
read, to pass away the time. I read many and many of 
them. It was all the recreation I had, and diverted my mind 
from my dreary surroundings. I was supplied with them 
constantly, and, in consequence, my head was filled with 
low and wicked thoughts. I took a fancy, from some of 
the remarkable stories I read, that I might by some good 
fortune by and by effect my escape from the prison, and then 
my heart would fill up with murderous intentions toward 
the man who put me in. 

After this I was sick, and suffered a good deal for two or 
three years, and became at times uneasy and intractable. 
Then I had to suffer severe punishment; but punishment 
never did me a particle of good, it only made me harder 
and harder. 

I had been in the prison four or five years, when, one Sun- 
day morning, I went with the rest to service in the chapel. 
I was moody and miserable. As I took my seat, I raised my 
eyes carelessly to the platform, and who should I see there 
beside the chaplain but a man named Orville Gardner, who 
had been for years a confederate in sin. " Awful Gardner" 
was the name by which I had always known him. Since 
my imprisonment he had been converted, and was filled 
with desire to come to the prison, that he might tell the 
glad story to the prisoners. I had not heard he was com- 
ing, and could not have been more surprised if an angel 
had come down from heaven. I knew him at the first 
glance, although he was so greatly changed from his old 



14 A Memorable Service, 

rough dress and appearance. After the first look I began 
to question in my mind if it was he after all, and thought I 
must be mistaken ; but the moment he spoke I was sure, 
and my attention was held fast. 

He said he did not feel that he belonged on the platform, 
where the ministers of God and good men stood to preach 
the gospel to the prisoners ; he was not worthy of such a 
place. So he came down and stood on the floor in front of 
the desk, that he might be among the men. He told them 
it was only a little while since he had taken off the stripes 
which they were then wearing ; and while he was talking 
his tears fairly rained down out of his eyes. Then he knelt 
down and prayed, and sobbed and cried, till I do not believe 
there was a dry eye in the whole crowd. Tears filled my 
eyes, and I raised my hand slowly to wipe them off, for I 
was ashamed to have my companions or the guards see me 
weep ; but how I wished I was alone, or that it was dark, 
that I might give way to my feelings unobserved. I knew 
this man was no hypocrite. We had been associated in 
many a dark deed and sinful pleasure. I had heard oaths 
and curses, vile and angry words from his mouth, and I 
knew he could not talk as he did then unless some great, 
wonderful change had come to him. I devoured every word 
that fell from his lips, though I could not understand half 
I heard. One sentence, however, impressed me deeply, 
which he said was a verse from the Bible. The Bible ! 
I knew there was such a book, that people pretended 
it was a message from God ; but I had never cared for it, 
or read a word in it. But now God's time had come, and 
he was going to show me the treasures that were hid in that 
precious book. 

I went back to my cell. How dreary is Sunday in prison ! 



Reading the Bible, 1 5 

After the morning service in the chapel, the prisoners are 
marched back to their cells, taking their plate of dinner with 
them as they pass the dining-hall, and the rest of the day is 
spent in solitude. Oh, those long, dismal hours ! I had 
generally contrived to have a novel on hand, but that day 
I had none. What I had heard was ringing in my ears, and 
the thought possessed me to find the verse which had so 
struck me. Every prison-cell is supplied with a Bible ; but, 
alas! few of them are used. Mine I had never touched 
since the day I entered my narrow apartment, and laid it 
away in the ventilator. I took it down, beat the dust from 
it, and opened it. But where to turn to find the words I 
wanted I knew not. There was nothing to do but to begin 
at the beginning, and read till I came to them. On and on 
I read. How interested I grew ! It seemed better than 
any novel I had ever read, and I could scarcely leave it to 
go to sleep. I become so fascinated, that from that day on 
it was my greatest delight. I was glad when I was released 
from work, that I might get hold of my Bible ; and night 
after night, when daylight was gone, I stood up by my 
grated door to read by the dim light which came from the 
corridor. I had supposed it to be a dry, dead thing — a 
book only fit for priests and saints, but now, whenever I 
could get a chance to communicate with my mates in the 
workshop, I told them that it was a " splendid thing, that 
Bible." 

I never found that verse. I had forgotten it in my new 
interest in the book. But I found a good many verses that 
made me stop and think. At last I came to first Timothy, 
fourth chapter, which begins in this way : '' Now the Spirit 
speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall de- 
part from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and 



1 6 Some Strange Discoveries, 

doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy ; having 
their conscience seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to 
marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God 
hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them 
which believe and know the truth." I threw down the 
book, and kicked it about my cell. ** The vile heretics," I 
cried ; " there's their lies. I always heard the old book was 
a pack of lies. That's the way they hold us Catholics up." 
Something seemed to whisper to me, " Go get a Catholic 
Bible, and then you can prove this to be false." I couldn't 
get rid of the thought. I took my first chance to go to the 
library and ask for a Catholic Bible. They looked at me 
pretty sharp, as though they would like to understand what 
I was driving at ; but they gave me what I wanted, and I 
took it to my cell. Eagerly I turned to that chapter. 
There they were, the very same words, ** forbidding to 
marry," and " commanding to abstain from meats." But 
there were notes in the margin, which boxed it up so, that 
my suspicions were at once aroused. I said, " It surely is 
the Word of God, and they are trying to get out of it." I 
turned to various parts, to Kings, Isaiah, and other books, 
and I found that the words in both were almost the same, 
the meaning was the same always, and I was in despair. 
Then I read the whole book through again, and liked it 
better the second time than I did the first. The book of 
Revelation particularly astonished me. I tried to believe, 
but I could not understand it. 

'' I was resting one night from reading, walking up and 
down and thinking what a change religion had made in 
Gardner, when I began to have a burning desire to have the 
same. I could not get rid of it ; but what could I do ? 
Something within me said '' Pray." I couldn't frame a 



He Desires to be Saved, 1 7 

prayer. The voice said, *' Don't you remember the prayer 
of the publican, 'God be merciful to me a sinner'?" I 
thought of my own religion, the Roman Catholic faith, in 
which I had been brought up, and I asked, " Why can't I be 
good in that ?" " But that will not save me as Gardner's 
does him," I thought ; '' it does not keep me free from my 
sins." There was a struggle in my mind. " If I send for 
the priest," I said to myself, " he will tell me I must do pen-, 
ance, say so many prayers, and do something for mortifica- 
tion, and such as that. If I ask the chaplain, he will tell me 
to be sorry for my sins, and cry to God for forgiveness. 
Both can't be right." The voice within said, " Go to God ; 
He will tell you what is right." 

What a struggle I went through ! I knew I ought to 
pray ; but if there had been ten thousand people there I 
couldn't have been more ashamed to do it than I was there 
all alone. I felt myself blushing. Every sin stared me in 
the face. I recollected the " Whosoever" in the Bible. 
*' That means you," said the inward voice. " But I'm so 
wicked," I urged ; '' everything but a murderer, and that 
many a time in my will." The struggle did not seem all my 
own ; it was as if God was fighting the devil for me. To 
every thought that came up there came a verse of the Scrip- 
ture. 1 fell on my knees, and was so ashamed I jumped up 
again. I fell on my knees again, and cried out for help, and 
then, as ashamed as before, I rose again. I put it off for 
that time and went to bed. 

This conflict went on for three or four weeks. It was 
fearful. I wonder now at the long-suffering mercy of my 
God. I wonder that the Holy Spirit was not grieved to de- 
part from me forever. But at last the Lord sent a softness 
and tenderness into my soul, and I shed many tears. Then 



1 8 A Terrible Struggle, 

I cried unto the Lord, and began to read the Bible on my 
knees. 

The Sunday services seemed to do me no good. They 
were dry and dead to me. Once in a while a man full of 
the Holy Ghost preached for us, and at such times I got a 

little help. About that date Miss D began to visit the 

prison, and I was sent for one day to meet her in the 
library. This young lady had learned that I was seeking 
the Saviour, and had asked to see me. She talked with me, 
and then knelt down to pray. I felt ashamed, but I knelt 
beside her. I looked through my fingers and watched her. 
I saw her tears fall. An awe I cannot describe fell on me. 
It seemed dreadful to me, the prayer of that holy woman. 
It made my sins rise up till they looked to me as if they 
rose clean up to the throne of God, and it appeared to me 
as if they troubled God, they rose up so high. What should 
I do ? Oh, what can a poor sinner do when there is nothing 
between him and God but a Hfe of dark, terrible sin ? 

That night I fell on my knees on the hard stone-floor of 
my cell, resolved to stay there, whatever might happen, till 
I found forgiveness. I was desperate. I felt just like the 
words of the hymn, 

** Perhaps he will admit my plea, 
Perhaps will hear my prayer, 
But if I perish I will pray, 
And perish only there." 

I prayed, and then I stopped; I prayed again, and 
stopped ; but still I continued kneeling. My knees were 
rooted to those cold stones. My eyes were closed, and my 
hands tightly clasped, and I was determined I would stay 
so till morning, till I was called to my work ; " and then," 



Light at Last. 19 

said I to myself, " if I get no relief, I will never, never pray 
again." I felt that I might die, but I didn't care for that. 

All at once it seemed as if something supernatural was in 
my room. I was afraid to open my eyes. I was in an 
agony, and the sweat rolled off my face in great drops. Oh, 
how I longed for God's mercy ! Just then, in the very 
height of my distress, it seemed as if a hand was laid upon 
my head, and these words came to me : " My son, thy sins, 
which are many, are forgiven." I do not know if I heard a 
voice, yet the words were distinctly spoken to my soul. 
Oh, the precious Christ ! How plainly I saw him, lifted on 
the cross for my sins ! What a thrill went through me. I 
jumped from my knees ; I paced up and down my cell. A 
heavenly light seemed to fill it ; a softness and a perfume 
like the fragrance of sweetest flowers. I did not know if I 
was living or not. I clapped my hands and shouted, 
''Praise God! Praise God!" 

One of the guards was passing along the corridor, and 
called out, '' What's the matter?" "I've found Christ," I 
answered; " my sins are all forgiven. Glory to God!'.*^^ He 
took out a paper from his pocket and wrote the number of 
my cell, and threatened to report me in the morning. But 
I didn't care for that. My soul was all taken up with my 
great joy. But the next morning nothing happened to me, 
and I think the Lord made him forget it. What a night 
that was ! I shall surely never forget the time when the 
Lord appeared as my gracious Deliverer from sin. 



20 Seeking for Souls, 



CHAPTER II. 

STRUGGLES AND TEMPTATIONS. 

'* In the way a thousand snares 
Lie, to take us unawares. 
Satan, with malicious art. 
Watches each unguarded part." - 

From that time life was all new to me. Work was 
nothing ; hard fare nothing ; scowls and harsh words 
nothing. I was happy, for Jesus was my friend ; my sins 
were washed away, and my heart was full of love and 
thanksgiving. I hated every sinful way. I had formerly 
smoked, but something within now said it was wrong, and 
I gave it up. 

And the Lord began to use me in the prison among my 
fellow-convicts. A great work was commenced there, and 
spread from cell to cell. The prisoners began to read their 
Bibles, to call upon God, and to praise the name of Jesus. 

Jack Dare was the first man I began to pray for. There 
had been a revolt in the prison, and he was one of the 
leaders. This revolt occurred some time before my conver- 
sion, but I had no hand in it. 

Jack was in the same workshop with me, and was quite a 
favorite. The convicts often paired off in friendships, and 
he and I went together. If either of us had any little 
luxury we shared it with the other, as children would do ; 
and when I got salvation I wanted to share that with him. 



A Trophy Won. 21 

I approached him on several occasions with the subject, but 
he repulsed me with sneers. He seemed to think I was 
playing a bold game to get out of prison ; but he learned at 
last that I was in earnest. 

He found me several times weeping and poring over my 
Bible. Once he lifted his hand to strike me, and even spit 
at me ; but when I told him that I had no resentment, and 
could stand it for Jesus' sake, he was touched. That 
astonished him. I said nothing more for a week, and he 
seemed to be getting worse all the time ; but I felt sure the 
Spirit of God was striving with him. I kept on praying 
with strong crying and tears, and I knew God would save 
him. 

One day he told me he had been praying, but it seemed 
dreadful to him to pray. I knew all about that from my 
own experience. Not long after this, as he came out of his 
cell one morning to go to work, I caught sight of his face, 
and it was all lit up. He was at the head of the column, 
and I near the foot ; he just glanced at me with a smile, 
and gave an upward turn of his eye to heaven, and then I 
knew it was all right with him. )\ could scarcely keep from 
shouting. 

The first one he told the good news to was the keeper. 
*' Jack," said he, " I'm glad you've got religion." It was 
not that he cared for religion, but he was afraid of Jack, he 
was such a desperate character, and now he knew he would 
have no more trouble with him. 

All the time I had to work for Christ was about half an 
hour each day, and I improved it. This was when the 
regular keeper was relieved, and we were allowed then to 
talk. I had my men all picked out, and I went from one 
to the other, saying the few earnest words I could say. 



22 Pardoned and Released, 

Several of these were converted. One or two wandered 
away when they left the prison, having no Christian friend 
to look after them. Since that time they have come into 
the Helping Hand, and have been sweetly restored. 

About two years I went on thus. My faith was so 
simple, I felt the Lord would give me anything reasonable I 
might ask. And I never had a doubt until after I came out 
of prison and mingled with Christians, and their wavering, 
unstable, half-and-half faith staggered me. My cell seemed 
all that time like heaven, and I cared very little whether I 
ever came out of it or not. The love of Christ was so 
abounding, it drowned every trouble. No one could insult 
me. If my comrades abused me, I felt that I could pray 
for and forgive them. 

After this I was led to pray for my liberty. At first I 
felt that the desire to be set free was of the devil. But I 
asked the Lord about it, and he gave me the assurance that 
my desire should be granted. And it was: I received a 
pardon from the Governor after having served about half 
my time — seven years and six months. 

When I got out of prison I was more lonely than I had 
been in my cell. I could not go back to my old haunts and 
companions, and I knew no others. If I had found a single 
Christian friend at that time, it would have saved me years 
of misery. And here I must say that it does not seem to 
me right to turn men out of prison, and make no provision 
for their future well-doing. Many a poor fellow has been 
driven to crime, and back again to his prison-cell, for want 
of kindly counsel and direction when he first came out 
again into the world. 

I wanted to do right, to please God. The first thing I 
did was to inquire for a prayer-meeting. I was told of one ; 



Beco7nes a Backslider. 23 

but when I got to the door I was afraid to go in. I had 
never been to a Protestant meeting, and nobody invited me 
in. I kept steadily away from the Fourth Ward, lest I 
should be tempted by old associates. Unfortunately the 
only friend I found directed me to a lager-bier saloon to 
board. Lager-bier had come up since I went to prison, and 
I did not know what it was. They told me it was a harm- 
less drink, wholesome and good, and simple as root-beer. 
I drank it, and then began my downfall. My head got 
confused. The old appetite was awakened. From that 
time I drank it every day, and it was not long before I 
went from that to stronger liquors. 

The night I stopped praying I shall never forget. I felt 
as wretched as I did the day I went to prison. And now I 
began a career of sin and misery which I cannot fully 
describe. Satan got completely the upper hand of me. 
The dear Saviour who had been so gracious and so precious 
to me in the prison I let go. How I wonder now that he 
did not let me go ! But he did not. 

I had obtained work in a large hat-shop. The workmen 
had a strike, and I was one of the ringleaders. We were all 
dismissed, and thus I was thrown out of employment. 
Then, it being war-time, I went into the bounty business. 
Rascally business, that. I would pick men up wherever I 
could find them, get them half drunk, and coax them to 
enlist. They received the bounty, and I had a premium on 
each of half the amount. I made a great deal of money 
in this way, which I spent freely. I became a sporting 
man, went often to the races, and my downward course was 
greatly quickened. 

I got in with a man, who has since died of delirium tre- 
mens, and went boating with him on the river. We would 



24 Returning to the Old Ways, 

buy stolen goods of the sailors, compel them to enhst on 
fear of being arrested, and we took the bounty. We went 
on for some time in this thieving, racing, speculating, and 
bounty business. We kept a recruiting-office in New York 
and another in Brooklyn, and found plenty to do, and 
might have grown rich if I had saved what I made. 

But all this time my conscience was far from easy. I 
remembered the days at Sing-Sing when the glory of the 
Lord shone in my cell, and I was shouting with joy for sins 
forgiven, and improving every moment to win souls to 
Christ. I knew I was all wrong, and yet I could not stop. 
I seemed to be on a down track, and rushing at furious 
speed. When I felt the most troubled I would go to drink- 
ing, and try to drown conscience in whiskey. 

After the war was over I went to boating exclusively, 
buying and selling smuggled and stolen goods. There was 
a good deal of this business among sailors and captains. I 
gave counterfeit money for the goods, until I became well 
known for this, and then I had to give it up, for no one 
would steal for me when they found I gave them nothing 
for it. From this I became a river-thief, boarding vessels 
at night, and doing the stealing myself. How many nar- 
row escapes from death I had while engaged in this wicked 
business! 

One night we were out on the river in our boat, looking 
for chances. We had been disappointed in some of our 
plans at Greenpoint, and pulled down to the Williamsburg 
ferry, where we fastened our craft to the Idaho, one of the 
regular ferryboats, to be towed across to the New York 
side. We had steamed out a little way into the river, when 
the Idaho was discovered to be on fire. It seemed but the 
work of a moment from the first alarm, till the whole boat 



Narrow Escapes. ^5 

was in flames. The greatest confusion prevailed among the 
crew and passengers. We let go as soon as we could, for 
fear we should be swamped ; but before we could push off 
two men jumped in. We rowed them to the shore and 
then came back, not to save life, but to get booty. An- 
other ferryboat came alongside and rescued about forty of 
the passengers, but there were ten or twelve who threw 
themselves into the water, and these we picked up. We 
saved one Christian woman. We held on to her as she 
clinched the sides of the boat with her hands. The whole 
scene was terrific. The fire raging, the screams of the 
perishing, the struggles of the poor creatures in the water, 
impressed my mind deeply with the thought of the last 
day and the fiery hell to which I knew the sinner must go. 
And yet God used us wicked people in the midst of all this 
terror and confusion to save his children. My partner 
wanted me to let the people go, and pick up the cloaks, 
hats, and various things that were floating in the river ; but 
I said, *' No ; I haven't got so low as that yet." And I 
thank God now he helped me do what he did, and get all 
those poor people safe to the land. 

Another night in Brooklyn we stole a rope-fender off a 
sliip, the whole value of which was not more than a dollar 
and a half, and yet for that we could run such fearful risks. 
The captain of the vessel saw us, and seizing his revolver 
fired at us, once, twice, four times. The balls came so close 
that I could feel them as they whizzed past my head, but 
they did not hit. God preserved me that time also ; for what? 

After I got round the wharf and out of danger, I felt 
frightened more than before. Something whispered, "■ If 
that bullet had hit you, where would you have been?" and 
the response of my conscience was, " In hell." 



26 Almost Drowned, 

All the time I was prosecuting this business, I had a 
longing in my sober moments to be a better man, to lead 
an honest and sober life ; but I felt that after all the joy 
and peace I had before had, I never could come to. God 
again. Satan always quoted that text to me, " For it is 
impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have 
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the 
Holy Ghost, ... if they shall fall away, to renew them 
again unto repentance." So to quell these memories and 
convictions, I kept all the time under the influence of 
liquor. If any one had spoken to me kindly and in a 
Christian spirit at that time, it would have subdued me, but 
no one came near the poor, wretched outcast. 

One night we went over to Brooklyn on a plundering ex- 
pedition. I was very drunk. There was a certain vessel at 
the wharf which we had our eye upon, but I was too intoxi- 
cated to do my share of the work, so I stayed in the boat 
while my partner boarded the ship. By some mishap I fell 
into the water. The boat went one way, and the eddy 
carried me in another direction, and out from the wharf. I 
went down and touched bottom, and rose to the surface. 
Again I sank and rose. The third time, the thought came 
to me, '' This is the last, and now you are gone — you are 
drowned." Hell seemed opening under my feet, and I 
fancied I could hear the wails and shrieks of the lost. 
Then something said, "Call on God." But how could I? 
I felt it was too mean ; I had sinned too fearfully. But I 
did call, and the Lord heard me. I seemed to be lifted 
right up to the surface of the water, and the boat, which 
had drifted off in another direction, was brought right to 
me, so that I could get hold of it. I can't tell how it was, 
but it always seemed to me a miracle. The water had 



Better Days Dawn. 27 

sobered me, and after I got hold of the boat I managed to 
get in. After I was in, something seemed to say to me, 
" God has saved you for the last time. If you ever go out 
on the river again, God will let you drop into hell and be 
lost." It was a very clear, strong impression on my mind, 
but instead of softening me it made me angry. 

I took my partner into the boat without a word. We 
rowed across the river, and I went home and dried my 
clothes. What a load of guilt was upon me! I could think 
of nothing else to do, and to rid myself of it I drank, and 
drank, and drank. But no amount of liquor could drown 
that inward voice. In spite of all, I would have gone out 
again, but my partner met with an accident which prevented 
his going, so, notwithstanding my desires, I did not. We 
had no money ; I couldn't borrow, and I was actually in 
want. 

This may seem strange to some ; but while we made a 
good deal of money in our wicked life, we laid up nothing, 
but spent as fast as we got it. It was the wages of iniquity, 
and as the Bible says, '' put into a bag with holes," so that 
it did us no good. 

The sting of conscience remained with me, and a strange 
desire to be out of this wicked business^ and in some honora- 
ble employment. It seemed wonderful that such feelings 
should so haunt me all the time ; but now I can see that it 
was the convicting power of the Holy Spirit that was pursu- 
ing me, and would not let me go until I had been brought 
back from my wanderings. — 

The John Allen excitement had just commenced in Water 
Street, and the good Christian people were going through 
the ward to bring in the sinners to the meetings. I was sit- 
ting in my room one of these wretched days, when I heard 



28 He Finds a F7'iend. 

a stranger in the hall below. The landlady was ill up-stairs, 
and the person who had entered came up. Just outside my 
door I heard a pleasant voice say to her, " Do you love 
Jesus ?" That voice — those words ! It seemed like long- 
forgotten music. It recalled the past happy days when I 
had known the love of Jesus, and my heart was deeply 
touched. 

'' No, indade, do I love Jesus ; and who is he ?" was the 
rough answer I heard. 

" My good woman, and don't you know who Jesus is?" 
and then the person passed on to the top of the house, to 
see another inmate of the house, whom he had been sent to 
visit, and the landlady came into my room. 

" Who is that ?" said I. 

" Oh, it's one of them tract pedlers," said she. 

" Why don't you treat the man with respect ?" said I. 

She was silent, but I thought at once that perhaps this 
man, whoever he might be, might get me a job of honest 
work ; so I went out and waited on the landing till he came 
down-stairs. He saw me ; but I was a frightful-looking ob- 
ject, and I think he was a little scared at facing me. How- 
ever, I accosted him, and he told me to come down-stairs 
and he would talk with me. I had a colored shirt on, an 
old pair of pants, and my hair was cropped pretty close. I 
don't wonder the missionary didn't want to talk with me on 
the landing, but preferred to have me below on the pave- 
ment. 

We walked out together, up the street, till we came to 
the New Bowery. As we approached the Howard Mission 
he invited me in. I didn't know until then that there was 
such a place. A gentleman there met us, and spoke to me 
very kindly. They both said that if I would sign the pledge 



A Wonderful Text. 29 

they would see what they could do for me. The idea struck 
me as it never had done before, that a drunkard like me 
couldn't get work, and there was no hope of decent employ- 
ment unless I did reform. So I signed it. But I told them 
I shouldn't be likely to keep it, that I had taken it many 
times before, and broken it. I wanted to be honest, but I 
knew I couldn't keep it. " Try it again," they both said, 
" and ask God to help you." *' Well, to please you, I will," 
I said. 

I went right home from there and told my partner what 
I had done. How he laughed ! '' You take the pledge !" 
he said. He had a bottle of gin in his hand at that moment, 
and turning out a glass offered it to me. " Tom," said I, " I 
have just taken the pledge." But I drank it ; and as I put 
down the glass, I added, " Now this is the last drink I shall 
ever take." *' Yes, till you get the next," said he. 

Just at that moment in walked the missionary. I kept as 
far away from him as I could, so that he might not smell my 
breath. I think if he had asked me I should have honestly 
confessed what I had done. But he did not. He only in- 
vited me to go out and walk with him. I went ; and as we 
walked I told him I w^as going out on the river that night, 
for we were dead broke, I was hungry, and must have 
money. 

He looked sad and troubled. ''Jerry," said he, "before 
you shall do that, I'll take this coat off my back and pawn 
it, and give you the money." 

I looked at the coat and saw it was worn and old, and I 
was touched to the heart. It was as much as I could do to 
keep the tears out of my eyes. " Here's this good man," I 
said to myself, '' poor, as I know he must be, willing to take 
the coat off his back and pawn it to keep me from doing 



30 Corning Back to God. 

wrong." I don't know as he saw the effect of his words, but 
I hung my head. 

" I will give you a text out of the Bible," said he. " * Seek 
ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all 
these things shall be added unto you.* " 

I remember my answer : " I'll take that text and trust 
God." 

Then he went away, and in a little while he brought me 
fifty cents. I got something to eat, and we did not go out 
boating. 

The next day, as Tom and I, with Maria (now my be- 
loved wife and helper) and Nellie, the two girls with whom 
Tom and I were intimate, were in our room together, the 
missionary with some Christian ladies came in to see us. 
They talked with us a while, and then said they would pray. 
I wished they wouldn't, but I had not the courage to say so, 
and they went on. Those prayers had a wonderful effect 
upon me. 

Day after day my new friend followed me up, and so 
closely that I could get no chance to drink. '' Tom," I 
would say, *' I'm going to turn over a new leaf." But Tom 
would answer, " Will the Lord come down from heaven to 
give you a beefsteak?" The missionary would often repeat 
the text he had given me, but Tom wouldn't accept it. I 
felt, however, that I could. I had had some experience 
which he had not, and I believed the Word of the 
Lord. 

Soon after this we were invited to the missionary's house 
to take tea. He lent me a coat to wear. After tea they 
had singing and prayer. I cried and cried. 

*' Pray for yourself," said he, " and God will save 
you." 



New Temptations. 3 1 

*' I don't know how," I said ; '' I can't put the words to- 
gether." It wasn't that I had forgotten all about praying; 
but after I had sinned so fearfully, I felt afraid to utter 
such solemn words. 

'' Pray the prayer of the publican," some one cried ; 
*' * God be merciful to me a sinner.' " 

I prayed it. My heart was all broken, and I repeated 
the words over and over. 

" Put in * For Jesus' sake,' " said the missionary. 

So I put that in, and oh, the joy that came into my 
heart : not like the first time, but more calm and peace- 
ful. 

'' I am saved," I cried ; " Jesus has saved me." 

Oh, the joy and excitement of that evening! I shall 
never forget it. These good people had come down into 
the Fourth Ward to labor among the very lowest of low 
and wicked men and women, and God had given them a 
trophy in me, one of the hardest cases in the ward. How 
their faith was strengthened ! 

After that the missionary used often to walk round with 
me, his arm in mine. This was a great help to me, for all 
my old companions had heard of my conversion, and it was 
such a strange event that they would shout after me. So 
it was a protection to be with some one whom they truly 
respected. It is not so much of an event now for a noto- 
rious sinner to be converted in Water Street. The wonders 
of God's grace have been greatly multiplied down there 
within the last few years. 

But before this came about I had a long and trying pro- 
bation. I found work in the Ferry Company. There I 
was tempted, and drank again. My good friend the mis- 
sionary had left the city, the meetings were given up, 



32 Saved from Suicide. 

and I felt lonely and sad. I had not then joined any- 
church. 

Maria was out of the city, and I felt I must go and see 
her. I took Sunday for the visit, though conscience told 
me I was doing wrong. It was a cold, snowy day. I went 
in the stage, and when we reached the half-way house all 
the passengers got out and drank. They looked at me as 
they were taking their hot whiskey, seemingly with pity, as 
though I couldn't afford to buy. My pride was touched. 
I went up to the bar and asked for sarsaparilla. The man 
handed me a gin-bottle and glass. There was an inward 
conflict, and I grieved the Spirit. 

Coming back from my visit, I lost the stage, and had to 
put in at a hotel. There the devil made me drink again. 
I could only think of the house '' empty, swept and gar- 
nished," where the unclean spirit had dwelt. " Then goeth 
he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked 
than himself, and they enter in and dwell there ; and the 
last state of that man is worse than the first." The un- 
clean spirit had come back into my heart with his miserable 
company, and I was in a sad plight. 

I went out of the hotel and went straight to a church 
which was open. I sat down, and though I was drunk, I 
seemed to know what was going on. I was very angry 
with myself, and cursed God. I said, " I'll never go back 
to Water Street, to disgrace God and the good people 
there." I made up my mind I would kill myself. 

I went out from the church and took the cars for home. 
What a day I had spent ! My brain was on fire. My heart 
was cast down. My conscience was sore. Yes, I thought 
again, " I will kill myself." I made up my mind to let my- 
self down from the platform and let the cars go over me. 



Joining the Church. -^^i^ 

But the conductor was there and pushed me in. While I 
was watching my opportunity the Holy Spirit came to me, 
and my heart was softened. The next night I went to a 
meeting, confessed my sin, and asked Christians to pray for 
me, and I prayed myself that God would forgive me. 

I fell once after that, but God lifted me up again. 

The Sunday after this last slip I went into the Howard 
Mission, while the Sunday-school children were singing. I 
sat down on a side seat, and then I saw on the platform 
the gentleman mentioned in the next chapter who had pre- 
viously been introduced to me by the missionary, and had 
spoken kind and encouraging words to me. He looked at 
me and recognized me with a friendly smile and nod. I 
felt ashamed to look him in the face. Just before the 
meeting closed I got up and slipped out of the door for 
fear he would come and speak to me. I did not want him 
to know that I had been going wrong. But he was too 
quick for me. He caught me in the passage outside the 
chapel-door before I could get down the steps. He held 
out his hand, and, seeing my downcast looks, said, " What 
is the matter, Jerry?" I held back my hand and said, " I 
am not fit for you to speak to me." He said "Why, 
what is the trouble ; tell me all about it?" I then said " I 
have been in hell for three days," and I told him what had 
happened. He gave me a warm squeeze of the hand, and 
then, putting both his hands on my shoulders and looking 
me straight in the eye, with his own moist with sympathy, 
he said, " Don't give it up, Jerry ; try again, and keep trying, 
and hold on to Jesus." His words and look and hearty 
grip strengthened and encouraged me wonderfully. 

All this time I had kept up the use of tobacco, and that 
created a thirst in me. And I didn't belong to any church, 
3 



34 Sunday Work Refused, 

and so had no Christian influence to hold me. But soon 
after that I joined a Methodist Church on probation, and 
that strengthened me. 

I had another trial. I was required to work on Sunday. 
I told my employer I was not only reformed, but trying to 
lead a Christian life. 

" Jerry," said he, '' you are no better than I. I am a 
Christian man, but I have to work on Sunday, and you 
must too. I want you to come to-morrow to work." 

But I felt it was wrong, and did not go. On Monday 
morning I was discharged. I felt badly, for he was a 
church-member, and I a poor weak beginner in the Chris- 
tian life. 

'* Never mind," said my boss, trying to console me ; 
*' you go to work and I guess it will be all right." 

" No, I won't," said 1 ; " I will trust God." 

But I would not leave until I had seen my employer. I 
found him leaning over the side of the ferryboat. I tapped 
him on the shoulder. 

" Captain C," said I, *' have you discharged me for wish- 
ing to keep the Sabbath ?" 

He made no answer, but I knew he had heard me. I 
tapped him on the shoulder again. 

" Captain C, have you discharged me for trying to do 
right ?" 

" Jerry," said he, '' you haven't accommodated me, and I 
can't accommodate you." 

" Good-morning," said I, and walked away. 

After I began to try to live right, I went on for some 
time without work ; then my friend the missionary came 
back, and introduced me to Mr. H., a rich gentleman in the 
city. Mr. H. shook hands with me, and told me to keep 



A True Friend, 35 

on doing right, to trust God, and when I was in want to 
come down to his office and see him ; and he gave me his 
number. The shake of his hand and his encouraging words 
built me up. I resolved that I would never go to him for 
money, but his kindness put new life into me ; and I often 
went to him after that for encouragement and advice. No 
matter how busy he was, he always had a kind word for 
me, and would often excuse himself from his big friends to 
talk with me. 



36 ^ A Full Surrender, 



CHAPTER III. 

JERRY BECOMES A MISSIONARY. 

" Chosen, not for good in me, 
Wakened up from wrath to flee, 
Hidden in the Saviour's side 
By thy Spirit sanctified; 
Teach me here on earth to show 
By my love, how much I owe!" 

Soon after this I got a job of work, was led into scenes of 
temptation, and fell again. But this was the last time. I 
resolved to give up tobacoo, went into a Christian family 
who found employment for me, and I gave myself wholly 
to God. 

And here let me say a word about tobacco. I consider it 
a great stumbling-block in any Christian's life ; but when a 
man has had an appetite for liquor and is trying to keep 
from drinking, the use of tobacco is positively fatal. It will 
surely bring him back to his cups. If I had given it up 
when I gave up rum, I believe I should have had none of 
those fearful falls which I have described. I was led at last, 
by the grace of God, to do the clean thing — to give up 
every sinful habit, and from that time Jesus has kept me. 

After a time my work ceased, but the money I had saved 
lasted me some time. When I got to the last five dollars, 
I went into my room and prayed most earnestly for work, 
and before I came out I felt the assurance that my prayer 



A Happy Vision, 37 

was answered. In a few days a situation was offered mc 
in the custom-house for four dollars a day. Bur there I 
preached Jesus too much, and was soon turned away. 

Then I got steady employment in another place, where 
also I testified for Jesus. I had been there only a little 
while before a companion began to swear. I reproved 
him. 

" We can get along without swearing," said I. 

" What !" said he, " are you a churchman ?" 

" No, I am a Christian, or trying to be one," I replied. 

So I was spotted among the workmen, and pointed out 
as one of the ** hypocrites." One man, a German, I was 
permitted to lead to Christ. 

One day I had a sort of trance or vision. I was singing 
at my work, and my mind became absorbed, and it seemed 
as if I was working for the Lord down in the Fourth Ward. 
I had a house, and people were coming in. There was a 
bath, and as they came in I washed and cleansed them out- 
side, and the Lord cleansed them inside. They came at 
the first by small numbers, then by hundreds, and after- 
wards by thousands. 

Before I came out of this vision I was in tears. Then 
something said to me, " Would you do that for the Lord if 
he should call you? Would you do it for Jesus' sake?" 
And I answered, ** Yes, Lord, open the way, and I will go." 
I felt that I could go down there where I had always lived. 
I was used to the filth and misery, the drunkenness and 
Romanism, and I wasn't afraid of them. I felt sure I 
should be called to work for Jesus down there. 

A httle while after that my health gave way, and I took 
a vacation. I went with my wife to Sea Cliff, to attend the 
camp-meeting. All the time the thought of this work was 



38 The Way Opened, 

pressing upon me, and I prayed God to open the way for 
me to talk to the Christian people there about it. He gave 
me the opportunity. From there I went to Sing-Sing 
camp-ground, and presented it, and afterwards to Ocean 
Grove. Many were interested in the proposed work, and 
gave me larger or smaller sums to help it along, until I held 
in trust four hundred and fifty dollars. 

Then the Lord opened the way for me to begin the work 
in a small way at 316 Water Street, next door to where 
John Allen's dance-house used to be, and where the meet- 
ings had been held in which I had first testified for Jesus 
after I had been brought back to him in the way I have re- 
lated. The house had previously been a notorious dance- 
house of the worst sort. At the time of the John Allen ex- 
citement as it was called, of which I have already spoken, 
the lease of the house had been bought by my friend Mr. 
H. ; the dance-house people had been turned out with all 
their ungodly traps, and the building opened for a mis- 
sion. Afterwards when the lease had run out and the 
owner wouldn't renew it, Mr. H. bought the property so 
that it might be kept for a mission. There were a good 
many around there who would have been glad to see it 
turned into a devil's mission again ; but they were disap- 
pointed. 

At the time when the Lord put it into my heart to begin 
a mission, the house was occupied as a kind of side-station 
by the City Mission and Tract Society, to whom Mr. H. had 
given the use of it. 

I went to him one Sunday at the Howard Mission and 
told him about what I wanted to do, and about the four 
hundred and fifty dollars that I had raised. He seemed to 
discourage me a little at first. He said, " Jerry, if you start a 



The Helping Hand for Men, 39 

mission you will have to give your time to it ; you have got 
a good situation and good wages, where you are respected 
and trusted, which you will have to give up. Don't you 
think you can serve God and do good and earn your bread 
and butter at the same time right where you are ?" I 
thought then, and I knew afterwards, that he was trying 
me to see how much I was in earnest. I told him my heart 
was set on working for the salvation of such as I used to 
be ; that I was sure the Lord had put me up to it, and that 
I was willing to trust Him. He looked at me a minute, and 
then, putting his hand on my shoulder, and smiling as if 
convinced, he said, "■ Well, Jerry, there is the old house in 
Water Street ; it belongs to me ; you may have the use of 
that. I will speak to the City Mission people and get them 
to give it up ; go ahead, and God bless you. I will help you 
all I can." 

The City Mission and Tract Society, at his suggestion, 
cheerfully consented to leave the house at our disposal. 
We went down there in October, 1872, laid out the four 
hundred and fifty dollars in cleaning and repairing the 
house, and opened the place as a resort for the forlorn way- 
farers, sailors, and others who frequented the locality. We 
put up a sign, " Helping Hand for Men," which has been the 
guide-board to bring many a poor soul to the foot of the 
cross. 

No one need suppose that I could undertake and go on 
in such a work without opposition. My relatives, and my 
wife's also, were Roman Catholics, and were greatly dis- 
pleased with us. One of my sisters came to talk with me. 
I tried to convince her of the truth from the Scriptures. I 
told her there was no other name given under heaven 
whereby men can be saved but the name of Jesus. I could 



40 Debating with a Priest, 

not convince her, nor she me, so she went to one of the 
priests about it. 

'■' I am a converted Protestant," said he, *'and know both 
sides, and I will soon fix him." 

My sister wanted me to go with her to see him. I had 
no desire to go for the sake of argument, but for her sake 
I said I would, to show her too that I was not afraid. She 
couldn't read, and didn't believe what I had told her of the 
Bible. *' But," said I, " the priest is a learned man, and he 
will know that I speak the truth." My wife went with us, 
and a niece who had been brought up in a convent, and was 
very bigoted and bitter against the Protestants. 

'' You have come here to be convinced of your errors," 
said the priest, as we seated ourselves in his room. 

" I did," said I, '' if you can convince me from the Bible. 
Excuse me one moment, father ; do you believe it to be an 
inspired book?" 

'* Certainly." 

"• Do you believe this of the Protestant Bible?" 

"Certainly; there is but little difference." 

" I am glad you feel so, to start with," I said. 

"You will allow the Catholic Church to be the first," he 
said to me. 

"Yes, if you leave the Roman out," I answered. But he 
took no notice of that. 

" Christ said," he went on, " that the gates of hell should 
not prevail against his Church. Now if the gates of hell 
have prevailed, Christ was a liar." 

That sounded hard, and I felt that my Master was in- 
sulted, but I kept quiet. 

" I want to show you," he said, " that the gates of hell 
have not prevailed. The first Church was made up of the 



Meeting Error with Truth. 41 

twelve apostles. One of these was a traitor ; but the gates 
didn't prevail then, and haven't since. Have you ever read 
the history of Rome ? Well, they were fearfully wicked in 
Luther's time. They themselves acknowledged that the 
Church was corrupt and needed reformation. But still the 
Church did not go down. Do you believe Luther was a 
good man? He could not have been, for no man is good 
who breaks his vows." 

** A bad vow is better broken than kept," I said ; but he 
did not reply to that. 

" Do you believe in the Mass?" he asked. 

" No, I never read of the Mass or Confession in the 
Bible. It is a most degrading thing to bow down before 
a fellow-man to worship him." 

" You are not required to do that. We take the sins on 
us, and stand between you and God." 

" Then you stand in the place of Christ. Now God says, 
*■ Go into your closet, and pray in secret, and he will re- 
ward openly.' Isn't prayer the same thing with confes- 
sion?" 

He owned that it was, but said, ** Does not James say, 
'Confess your faults one to another'?" 

" Yes," said I, " that is just what we do in our prayer- 
meetings. When we have been led into sin we say so, and 
repent and come to Jesus, and testify of his willingness to 
receive us." 

" Well, that's right." 

" And now," said I, *' while we are on this point, you 
have as good a right to confess to me as I have to confess 
to you. * Confess to one another,' the Bible says. Then 
what do you do with these verses : '■ There is none other 
name given under heaven among men whereby we can be 



42 Faithftcl and Fearless, 

saved/ and, * There is one mediator between God and man. 
the man Christ Jesus ' ? You presume to be the mediator. 
You take my sister's sins, for instance, on yourself, you say, 
and bear them to God." 

Then I told him my experience. " I have been a drunk- 
ard and a thief, one of the wickedest men that ever lived. 
I have been in State-prison, and yet this Jesus, who is 
despised in your Church, has picked me up out of the gutter, 
has washed and cleansed and saved me. But you say all 
the Protestants will be damned." 

" Oh, no," said he, " no ; I believe that every good Prot- 
estant will go to heaven; but the turn-coats — they will 
surely be lost." 

*' My sister can tell you what a bad man I was, and what 
has been done for me. According to your theory, this is 
just to fit me for hell, and it must be the work of Satan." 

'* Satan often becomes an angel of light." 

''Then he certainly has become a friend to me. But no, 
that is not so ; I am not a slave of Satan, I am a free man. 
Jesus has set me free, as the Bible says he will do for every 
one that believes in him." 

" We don't follow the Bible." 

" What do you follow ?" 

''The traditions of the Church." 

" I didn't come here to argue, Father G., but to convince 
my sister of the truth. I am not afraid of the priest. The 
Lord has opened my eyes. Your people are afraid of you. 
You will lie to benefit the Church; but God has said, 'All 
liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire 
and brimstone.' " 

I talked fearlessly and faithfully to him. My heart was 
full of peace and joy, and I believe the Lord that night ful- 




Mrs. MARIA McAULEY. 



Mrs. McAtdcys Conversion. 43 

filled his word, and made the weak and foolish things to 
confound the wise. 

I feel that a word about my wife, and the way in which 
she was led to Christ, will be appropriate here. She too 
was the fruit of Water Street mission-work, and I am sure 
that my v/ork at the Helping Hand would not be half so 
successful as it is without her. She is truly a helpmeet from 
the Lord to me. 

She was, like myself, a Romanist, brought up in supersti- 
tion and bigotry. When she grew up she was obliged, like 
thousands of others, to earn her own living, and for that 
purpose came to the city. Here she was exposed to temp- 
tation on every side. She went into worldly pleasures, as 
young people are apt to do, and before long acquired a love 
for drink. About the time of my conversion she was 
invited into the John Allen Mission. She attended the 
meetings, but the gospel invitations she heard did not seem 
to do her any good. They fell upon her ear, but that was 
all. They sounded to her, as she often says, like an un- 
known tongue. And yet they were not altogether new, for 
they called up to her mernory things she had heard in her 
childhood, when she had been a member of a Protestant 
Sunday-school. And here, I think, is encouragement for 
Christian people to bring in such children into their Mission 
Sunday-schools, even if they do belong to another faith. 

The mission-workers labored with Maria very kindly and 
faithfully, but still she was not converted. She did, how- 
ever, promise to give up drinking, and after a while was per- 
suaded to leave the city, and to take a situation in a Chris- 
tian family in the country. Her friends hoped that in this 
way, by leaving the places of temptation, and living among 
good people, she would be brought to choose the right way. 



44 Becomes a Bible Reade7\ 

Here she was taught in rehgious things, attended family 
worship, and read the Bible, but still her heart was not 
reached. 

After several months she left this home for another. 
This too was a Christian family, and she had the same privi- 
leges, and here it was that suddenly the truths of the gospel 
were revealed to her. They came to her, just as knowledge 
seems to open to a little child, we don't know how, only we 
find, when we are not looking for it, that the child knows. 
Her blind eyes in an unexpected moment were touched, 
and she saw; her deaf ears were unstopped, and she heard. 
The way of salvation opened before her, and the words she 
had so often heard, and which had slipped off from her like 
water from a rock, were all at once full of life and power. 
They took hold of her conscience and heart ; the lessons of 
her childhood came to her with a meaning they had never 
had, and she believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and was 
saved. 

When Jesus was revealed to her she received him gladly, 
and gave herself wholly to him. It was no half-way work 
with her. Her faith was childlike, her love simple and ear- 
nest. She at once received power to lift her out of the 
bondage of sinful appetite, and her soul was possessed with 
a love for sinners, and a desire to lead others to the same 
precious Saviour she had found. She could not rest day or 
night for the longing she had to tell the glad story of her 
salvation. 

She came back to the city and commenced missionary 
work, in the employ of some Christian ladies, as a Bible- 
reader in the Fourth Ward. She found easy access to tene- 
ment-houses, liquor-saloons, and dens of infamy, and in every 
place testified of the grace of Christ, and besought sinners 



Commencing Mission Work. 45 

to behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of 
the world. Many listened, forsook their evil vays, and 
came to Jesus, who are living witnesses for the Lord to- 
day. 

I bless God that He permitted us to be united, and to 
work together in the Helping Hand ; and I hope God will 
let us live a great while to labor for souls. We find it sweet 
to work for him, and though we know we are in ourselves 
very weak and helpless, and prone to mistakes, yet we trust 
in the Lord, and feel that his precious blood is applied 
every moment to cleanse and save us. Glory be to 
Jesus ! 

By the kindness of some Christian friends in the city, a 
dinner was provided on Thanksgiving Day, soon after we 
took possession of the Mission-house. Bountiful provision 
was made, and the needy and outcast were freely invited to 
come in. The day closed with a religious service, and the 
Holy Spirit was poured upon the assembled company. It 
was a time long to be remembered ; and under its solemn 
influence the Lord put it into our hearts to appoint a simi- 
lar meeting for the next evening. From that time to the 
present, now more than three years, the humble chapel of 
the Helping Hand has been opened and lighted every 
evening for a gospel service. Hundreds of souls have been 
converted to God in this hallowed spot. The Lord has 
truly honored the place and the work. 

The meetings are led by Christians of various denomina- 
tions in New York and Brooklyn, and it is wonderful how 
the workers have been blest of God in their earnest effort 
to do good to others. I am on the spot all the time with 
my wife, and our work is by no means confined to the 



4-6 Praying for a New Building. 

evening service. Multitudes of poor sinful ones come in 
during the day for help and counsel. We point them to 
Jesus, the great Physician and Helper of body and soul, and 
many a one has it been our pleasure to lead to the fountain 
opened for sin and uncleanness. 

But my vision is not yet fully realized. The house of 
the Lord, with the bath, the chapel, and all the furnishings 
which I saw, has not yet been given. It is the dearest 
hope of my life to see it. I pray daily that the Lord will 
provide the means to put up just such a building, for it is 
needed in this Fourth Ward, as a refuge and safe harbor for 
the poor souls tossed up and down on the billows of sin 
and misery. And I have faith to believe that in God's own 
good time it will be accomplished."^ 

Meanwhile we are watching for souls, humbly trusting in 
the grace of God and the gift of his Holy Spirit, which 
alone can draw them out of the bondage of Satan into the 
liberty of children of God. 

This short sketch of my life I now lay as an offering on 
God's altar. I have told enough of my sin to magnify the 
riches of divine grace which reached out the hand of love 
and gently drew me in from the depths of iniquity into his 
loving favor. My prayer is, that the story of what Jesus 



* In the year 1876 the old building at 316 Water Street in which Jerry 
commenced his work was torn down, and a substantial three-story brick 
building was erected for the use of the Mission on the same spot; thus 
realizing in great measure his vision, and the hopes and aspirations to which 
it had given birth. About this time the Mission was incorporated under the 
title of The McAuley Water Street Afission, and became the owner of the 
property free from debt. Its work still goes on, constantly illustrating the 
power of Jesus to save, perpetuating the memory of its founder, and hon- 
oring the Redeemer whom he loved and served. 



Praying for a New Building. 47 

has done for me may encourage other sinners to trust in 
him for the same glorious, free salvation. 

Note. — We have now come to the end of the little work "Transformed," 
published by Jerry. He intended writing a larger volume during the winter 
of 1884-85, and would no doubt have done so had not death ended his 
earthly labors. Happily some further accounts of his work were dictated 
by Jerry from time to time before his death and these have furnished the 
material for many of the succeeding pages. 



48 A Thanksgiving Service. 



CHAPTER IV. 

TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 

" When we cannot see our way, 
We should trust and still obey; 
He who bids us forward go, 
Will instruct the way to know." 

In the preceding chapter brief reference was made to the 
origin of the Water Street Mission meetings. Speaking 
later to a friend of the Thanksgiving there mentioned, 
Jerry thus described the memorable occasion : 

" On Thanksgiving we gave a good dinner to one hundred 
and fifty poor people ; and afterwards we had a kind of a 
family prayer-meeting, Brother Rue proposing to give thanks 
for the grand day we had experienced. We got together for 
prayer and singing, and while this was going on the outside 
people flocked in and crowded the house. 

" Such a sight I never saw : sinners crying, ' God have 
mercy on me ! ' ' Lord help me ! ' and while I was on my 
knees the Lord said, 'You had better open the door every 
evening.' And so I did ; and this was the beginning of 
the grand revival since carried on at the Water Street Mis- 
sion, commencing in such a humble way, and yet doing such 
a great work among all sorts of people — rich and poor, high 
and low." 

All along the work was one of faith. Feeding many 
needy persons every day, even with the simple food pro- 
vided, and carrying on the meetings every night, was not 



Living by Faith. 49 

accomplished without means. But Jerry believed that the 
work was God's, and that so long as God wished him to 
carry it on the money would be forthcoming. 

So the testing times were trusting times, and days of 
trial were days of happy triumph ; for God greatly honored 
the humble faith of these two earnest ones. Jerry says : 

" As we had made it a rule to neither beg nor run in debt, 
our finances would frequently run very low, and we found 
ourselves more than once with very little in the treasury ; 
then again we would feel rich when we found we had $10 
in cash. We borrowed no trouble about finances, but 
trusted wholly in the Lord." 

In the first printed report we find many incidents serv- 
ing to illustrate the spirit in which the work was carried 
on. From among these we select the two following: 

'* Before the cold weather set in the workers prayed 
earnestly for the winter's supply of coal. Two business 
men were talking about it just then in their office down- 
town. One of these men had been converted but a few 
months before at the Mission, and felt moved to send in a 
thank-offering to the Lord. The other had been for many 
months a devoted worker there. Said the first, ' Let us 
join and send them coal enough to last the winter months.' 
The thought was of God, before whom the earnest prayer 
had just gone up. It was done, and all trouble on that 
score was settled. 

*' On another occasion a gas-bill came in, and there was 
not a cent in the treasury ; but it was taken to the Father, 
to whom belongs the silver and the gold. In the course of 
the day a letter was received containing just the amount of 
the bill, and the car-fare of the messenger who should go 
to pay it." 
4 



50 An Empty Treasury. 

During the first year of this useful work 26,261 meals 
were furnished to hungry men, lodgings were given to 5144, 
and a great deal of clothing was supplied. This was all 
done without any accumulation of debt, money coming to 
hand as it was needed. 

Of two instances in which his faith was tried, but was 
found firm and proved victorious, Jerry thus speaks : 

'* I call to mind one instance, and relate it to show how 
we were led. One night we found the Mission without a 
cent, and forty odd tramps to feed and nothing to offer 
them. It was a time to test my views, for I had declared I 
would let the Lord have his way, and whenever he ceased 
to provide, I would accept it as an evidence that he did not 
want us to go on, and as he supplied our necessities, would 
consider he was pleased to have us continue. I felt for 
those poor hungry men. Some of them had probably not 
tasted a bit of food for two and three days ; they had no 
money to help themselves, and when they came on Satur- 
day night we usually kept them over Sunday, but on this 
night we were broke. 

" We proceeded to the Mission-room and commenced the 
services, and some souls were saved. But even when nine 
o'clock had come, strange to say no one had handed us a 
penny. As the meeting drew to a close and nothing came, 
oh how dark everything looked ; my faith trembled. I could 
hardly keep from crying as I looked into the hungry faces 
of my poor tramps and converts. I spoke to my wife about 
them, and she replied : 

*' ' The Lord will provide ; you see if he don't ! ' 

" I closed with a heavy heart and dismissed the meeting, 
and my wife took her position at the door, as usual, to 
shake hands with the folks as they went out. A lady 



Help m Time of Need, 5 i 

passed out with her husband, and after going five or ten 
yards suddenly stopped, and coming back to my wife said, 
' Mrs. McAuley, we keep a baker-shop in Cherry Street, 
and I just happened to think you had better send up and 
get $5 worth of bread ! ' There was God's hand in answer 
to prayer, and we soon had enough for all and some to 
spare. 

" Another time we had used our last cent. We said noth- 
ing about it in the meeting, but prayed secretly for the 
dear Lord to interpose for us. Meeting was dismissed, and 
shortly after the people began to leave a man came in from 
the street and handed me a package. I opened it, and to 
my astonishment found $100 in it. The sight of it nearly 
took my breath away. I looked at it a moment, and then 
at the poor fellow who brought it, and finally said to him, 

* Where in the world did you get this ? ' 'A man gave it to 
me just outside, and told me to hand it to you,' he replied. 
' Who was he ? ' I said, as I turned it over and looked at it on 
every side to see if there wasn't something wrong about it. 

* I don't know,' said the man, who now seemed as much sur- 
prised as I was. 'A man out on the sidewalk handed it to 
me, and said, " Here, hand that to Jerry ;" that's all I know.' 
I counted it again: it was all there — one hundred dollars! 

* Whew ! ' said I, we'll never be poor again ! ' 

" Thus the Lord always interfered, but generally not until 
we were actually or pretty nearly dead broke and really 
needed it, proving himself a ' present help in time of 
trouble.' " 

The fiPxancial difificulties of the work were by no means 
the only ones to be surmounted. 

Jerry says, " When the every-night meetings commenced, 
then also began our troubles, for the devil woke up. Crowds 



5 2 Some of the Difficulties, 

of the lowest people used to come to the door to disturb the 
meetings, throwing brickbats and garbage, and anything they 
could lay their hands on, into the room. The police gave 
us no protection at that time, although I saw the captain 
time and again, but to no purpose." 

It is greatly to be regretted that Jerry should have had 
to make such a statement in reference to those who are 
paid and pledged to preserve order and keep the low and 
vicious under restraint. We would gladly suppress that 
part of this record which relates to the police and their ne- 
glect of duty, but to do so would be to keep out of sight 
some of the severest obstacles with which our brother had 
to contend. It is only fair to say, however, that at times 
during the history of the work the ofificials of the partic- 
ular precinct in which Jerry labored, as well as those at 
head-quarters, appreciated him and the work he was doing, 
and showed an earnest desire to afford all the protection in 
their power. We shall give in Jerry's own words some of 
this side of the history of the Water Street work. Those 
who knew him best will know that he did not relate such 
incidents in a spirit of boastfulness, or to show his own 
prowess. They were drawn from him as illustrating the 
nature of some of the difficulties which he had to encounter. 

'* During the early history of the Mission there were two 
notorious dens directly opposite our place, on the other 
side of the street. These were inhabited by a rabble of the 
lowest order, and they used to gather together and yell and 
make all sorts of unearthly noises to disturb the meetings. 
We found out one day to our great satisfaction that some 
wealthy men had purchased the property where these dens 
stood, and that they were to be torn down and two new 
houses built in their places. We congratulated ourselves 



Unexpected Troubles, 53 

that this was a good thing for us, and a cause for thanks- 
giving. How little we knew what trouble it was to bring 
us into, even before the houses were built ! Many of the 
workmen employed on them were a hard lot of drinking, 
boisterous fellows. Every one that passed along the street 
was at their mercy, and their language was filthy and 
brutal beyond all description. 

" A young, well-dressed man was passing one day, and 
one of them turned the hose on him and flooded him with 
water. Of course he resented the insult, and hard words 
began to fly back and forth. A crowd soon gathered, and 
after considerable talk the laborer threatened to knock out 
the young fellow's brains with a pickaxe, and the latter 
dared him to do it. I was standing in the door of the 
Mission looking quietly on, when, as the workman raised 
himself, as likely as not to split the young man's head open, 
his eye caught sight of me. Whether he thought I was in 
the way of his taking vengeance on the stranger, or whether 
he was loaded up with bitterness on account of what he 
had heard about the Mission, I do not know, but in a mo- 
ment he turned all his venom upon me. * What are you 
looking at, you dirty turncoat, you miserable hypocrite, 
you ? ' he yelled, and followed with a torrent of foul words. 
I was astonished, and said to him, ' See here, you must 
remember we are not all of us bad here, and if you don't 
shut up that foul mouth of yours, I'll take you to the 
station-house.' * Come over here, you,' he yelled in fury, 
adding a lot more of his vile words. Then I walked over 
and caught hold of him by the collar. I had a deputy- 
sheriff's badge, and had the right to make arrests. As I 
grabbed him his * pal ' slipped up behind me, and swing- 
ing his great heavy shovel over his shoulder, was about 



54 Shameful Persecution, 

to hit me. But I gave the fellow I had hold of a shove, and 
landed him into a great pile of loose sand brought there 
for building purposes, and while he was scrambling and 
floundering to get out I piled the other fellow on top of 
him. It was enough to make any one laugh to see those 
fellows trying to get out of the soft sand, and afraid all 
the time I was going for them again. Seeing a police- 
man coming I beckoned to him, and ordered him to arrest 
the scoundrel who began the row. He was about to do so 
when another policeman came running up. He took in 
the situation, and whispered something in the first one's ear. 
It was only a word, but it acted like magic. The M. P 
dropped his prisoner, and without a word grabbed me by the 
collar and arrested me as the offender. Of course I made 
no objection to going with him, although I knew he had no 
business to arrest a man wearing a badge and in the per- 
formance of his duty. 

" How delighted the rabble were ; and the policemen, enter- 
ing into their spirit, gave them a good chance to gloat over 
their seeming victory, by walking me as slowly as possible 
down that wicked street to show me up. * There he goes,* 
yelled one. ' See the dirty turncoat ! * * Bad luck to the 
likes of ye ! ' screamed another, and so on, with oaths, 
curses, and blasphemies, devoting me to any place but 
heaven, and wishing me anything but blessings. We 
reached the station-house, and the joy of the officials over 
catching such a troublesome fish was plain enough. 

'' One of the workmen made the complaint that I struck 
the other on the nose and knocked him down. ' Is that 
so ? ' said the sergeant ; ' did he hit you ? — show me the 
marks.' ' Him lave any marks on me ! I'd knock his brains 
out,' was the reply. * Arrah, go lang wid ye ! Faith he 



Threatening the Mission, 55 

did/ insisted the complainant ; and they were near coming 
to blows between themselves, and made the place ring with 
their oaths and hard words. They contradicted each other 
so that the officials began to look blue as the hopes of 
making out a case against me died away. The foreman of 
the building now interfered and said, *I saw the whole 
thing. My men have been drinking a little too much ; ' 
and then he described the affair as it was, concluding by 
saying, * I didn't see him strike either of them.' With 
this the captain boiled over as he saw I was going to slip 
through his fingers after all, and shaking his fist under my 
nose he called me all manner of names, and said, ' I'll lock 
you up, anyway. I'll break up that old nuisance of a Mis- 
sion for you. It keeps the whole place in an uproar. I'll 
send you back to prison again, where you belong. That old 
Mission is a nuisance.' 

" ' He has a shield on too, captain,' interrupted the police- 
man ; ' just look at him ! and he has a great big club down 
there at his ould mission to knock men down wid.' At this 
the captain grabbed me by the collar and tore my vest 
open, exclaiming, * I'll take it off you ! ' I pushed him 
back, and raising my finger said, * Captain, I dare you to 
put your finger on that shield ! * As I spoke he started for 
me again, but the opening of the outside door caught his 
attention, and there was my wife coming in. He did not 
know her, and growled, 

"'What can I do for you, madam?* 

" * What are you going to do with that man ? ' she 
questioned. 

" * What in is that to you ? ' he retorted fiercely. 

" ' A great deal, sir ! He is my husband ! ' she answered 
calmly; and I then interrupted them by saying to her, 



56 A Happy Outcome, 

' You go see Mr. Dodge or Mr. Hatch/ She hurried down 
to Mr. A. S. Hatch, who was one of our reliable stand-bys 
in time of trouble, and told him the story. Mr. Hatch was 
unable to leave his office just then, but he put her in a car- 
riage and sent her to the Superintendent of the City Mis- 
sions, with a note. He went with her to Mr. William E. 
Dodge, Sr., and this noble man of God was all stirred up in 
a moment. * Jerry shall not sleep in that place one night if 
it costs $50,000 to get him out,' he exclaimed. * Not even 
if a special court has to be called immediately ! ' 

" My wife knew whose hands the case was in, and, as it was 
now after the time for meeting to commence, she hurried 
back to the Mission to look after things there. Her heart 
was sad and heavy as she thought of me up in that old 
station-house among those lions, and though she had com- 
mitted me to God, she could not help feeling anxious, and 
somewhat cast down. In this mood she came to the door 
of the Mission, and looking inside she started back all in a 
heap. She has often since spoken of the peculiar feeling 
she had when, looking into the chapel, she saw the meeting 
running in good style, and Mr. Jerry McAuley — if you 
please — sitting in his usual place, leading the meeting. She 
could hardly believe her eyes, and giving them a good rub 
took another look and finally concluded that it was either 
her husband that she had left a short time ago in the hands 
of the sharks, or his ghost sitting there, or else that the whole 
thing had been an ugly dream from the beginning. She 
knew she was wide awake, and as I didn't look very ghostly, 
she settled the matter quite readily in her own mind, and 
walked in with a hearty * Thank God ? * and took part in 
the meeting. 

" This was the way I came to be released : The foreman's 



Jerry s True Prediction, 57 

statements were hard to reconcile with what the drunken 
men had said, and what the officials would have been glad 
enough to prove against me ; and so after talking and plan- 
ning and scratching their heads over it, the sergeant 
whispered to the others, * It won't do ; that commitment 
won't stand, so we'd better tear it up ; ' and suiting the ac- 
tion to the words, he demolished it and scattered it on the 
floor. The foreman now interposed for his men, and said, 

" * My men have been drinking some, sir ; but if you will 
let us get back to work now I'd like it.' ' Go on,* replied 
the captain ; and then, glaring at me like a wild beast cheated 
out of a good haul, he said fiercely, * Get out of here ! Get 
out!' 

" * I thought you were going to lock me up, captain ? * I 
said quietly. 

" ' G-e-t o-u-t ! ' he yelled. 

*^ * I thought you were going to lock me up ? ' I continued. 
* Now I dare you to do it ! Why don't you ? * 

"'G-e-t o-u-t!' 

" * Yes, I'll get out,' I replied ; * but mark you, captain, I'll 
be in this ward when you are turned out of it.' And I was ; 
for shortly after this we heard that he was censured and 
fined, and he then resigned. But he caused me a great deal 
of trouble before my prophecy came true ; for as soon as I 
got out of his clutches that time he picked out the very 
worst man he had on the force — a brutal and foul-mouthed 
fellow by the name of Fitch — and sent this * guardian * as 
my * protector,' with orders from headquarters to keep him 
for just that post. * Arrah, Jerry,' he said when he came 
on, */'// make it hot for yer ! ' — and he kept his word." 



5 8 Sad Scenes and Sounds, 



CHAPTER V. 

WATER STREET AS IT WAS. 

"Go labor on, spend and be spent. 
Thy joy to do the Father's will; 
It was the way the Master went, 
Shall not the servant tread it still ?" 

But even Fitch was more than matched by Savage, an- 
other officer whose beat included the street in front of the 
Mission-house. An account of some of this man's proceed- 
ings we find prefaced with a reference to Jerry's campaign 
against the dens by which he was surrounded. The terrible 
condition of the neighborhood in which the Mission was 
located is only too vividly seen by this account. 

Jerr}^ says : '' About this time I became so grieved over the 
desolation and wickedness all around us that my soul was 
stirred within me, and I couldn't stand it any longer. I 
knew it was my duty to do all I could to reach these poor 
fallen creatures and bring them to God, and thus check to 
some extent the devil's work ; but it now seemed to me that 
some one ought to strike at the fountain-head, and break up 

those miserable dives. I went to , and he referred me 

to his agent, , and from him I went to a number of 

others. I was all stirred up, and I could not sleep nights. 
I would toss on my bed, listening to the hideous sounds 
from the streets below — cries, groans, mad laughter, and 
broken snatches of songs, with occasional cries of ' Murder ! 



A Troublesome Policeman. 59 

murder ! ' At daylight I would start out again to see if some- 
thing couldn't be done to stop up these heli-holes — the 
cause of all the trouble. I received plenty of promises, and 
that was the end of it ; until, finding I had worn out a pair of 
shoes and received no help, I became hopeless of doing any- 
thing in that way, and went for them the best I could on 
my own hook> trusting in God to strengthen me and give 
me success : and he did, until I kept the police headquarters 
so warm they hated to see me coming, and would say when 
I came with a new case, ' There comes that McAuley again. 
Who in the world has he got now ? ' 

" The policeman who was now stationed on that beat soon 
began to let us know that his sympathy was with the rum- 
sellers and dives. His name was Savage, and he was rightly 
named ; for he was as great a savage as ever I saw. I had 
thought nothing could be worse than Fitch had been, but 
this brute was worse than all. When he couldn't think of 
anything else to worry us, he would walk into the Mission- 
room — in direct violation of his orders — while the meeting 
was going on, and stamp over to where we had a little shelf 
on which a Bible and a newspaper or two were usually found, 
and stamping as hard as he could with his great heavy boots, 
he would pick up a newspaper, throw it down again, and 
stamp, stamp, stamp, all the way back to the door, and if I 
would go for him, he would get out before I could get at 
him. I was standing in the door one night, while he stood 
outside with some of his friends, and finding he could not 
get in to disturb us without passing me, he commenced 
grinning to one of his pals. 'Ah, I'm not going to look 
after his ould Mission,' said he, after throwing out a number 
of other slurs. 

" * Why, of course,' I answered good and loud, ' of course 



6o The Woes of the Fallen. 

you won't : but if I'd sling you "decouple of dollars occasion- 
ally, as all these miserable gin-mills do, you'd watch for me, 
wouldn't you ? * 

*' He grated his teeth savagely, and dropped his hand to his 
club like a flash ; but I started towards him, and looking 
him square in the eyes, said : ' If you dare to touch me with 
that club, it'll be the last job of the kind you'll ever under- 
take ! You haven't got that poor woman to club to death 
now! * 

*' He started back astonished, and soon left me to myself. 
My blood was up, for I had in my mind a case which I will 
tell you about, to show what a brute he was and what kind 
of encouragement the poor fallen ones sometimes receive to 
help them to reform. 

*' One of those poor unfortunate girls, under the influence 
of liquor, and not knowing what she was doing, wandered 
out on the street and created some disturbance by singing. 
Savage went for her, and began clubbing her with his heavy 
night-club. It was not daybreak yet, and everything else 
was so still, we could hear her screams, and distinctly count 
the heavy blows of that terrible club— thug— thug— thug- 
like pounding a great ox. I could not stay in bed, so, run- 
ning to the window, I looked out to see if I could catch him 
at it. There was a great pile of mortar opposite us, where 
they were building the new houses, and just as I reached the 
window he struck her and knocked her down into the mor- 
tar. She stretched up both hands at arms' length, begging 
him not to kill her. He struck first one arm and then the 
other with his club, and they dropped, as if broken by the 
blows. He then beat her out of the mortar and across to 
the curbstone on my side of the street ; when, as she made 
one more effort to regain her feet, he knocked her down 



Heartless Officials. 6i 

with another blow, and she dropped on my cellar-door. I 
dashed up the window, and called to him, ' Hold on there! 
Why don't you take that woman in, if she's done wrong? 
What do want to kill her for, say ? * 

" * What's that your business ? ' he answered, as soon as 
he recovered from the surprise caused by hearing my voice. 

" * I'll show you in the morning,' I retorted. * Now you 
take her to the station-house, or I'll make you pay dear for 
your brutality to a helpless woman.' 

** He picked her up, and started around the corner with 
her, and I went back to bed. I learned afterwards that she 
became so weak, no doubt from the clubbing, that she couldn't 
walk ; so he called another policeman like himself, and when 
they found her unable to go without being carried, they fell 
to clubbing her again, first one striking her and then the 
other ; and those who heard it said her screams were ter- 
rific. 

" A man was clubbed to death on the same beat about this 
time, under very suspicious circumstances. Part of Savage's 
beat was travelled during certain hours of the night by a 
Dutch policeman. The latter, on going over his beat one 
morning, found, he said, the body of a man who had un- 
doubtedly been clubbed to death and then thrown behind 
a box. Savage blamed it on the poor Dutchman, and of 
course it would not do for me to say the former did it, as I 
had no personal knowledge of the fact. I take no pleasure 
in referring to these painful memories, but in order to rightly 
understand our struggles at that time, you must know some- 
thing of the obstacles we had to contend with, many of which 
were actually brought in our way by the very ones the city 
was paying to protect us ! During all this time the meet- 
ings were going on first rate." 



62 What Sustained Jerry, 

But opposition was not confined to the minions of the law. 
Those who do not know the kind of stuff of which our hero 
was made may wonder that the work was not given up in 
despair. But besides having a fast faith in God, he was pos- 
sessed of great personal courage, and opposition only served 
to keep his enthusiasm stirred up. At the same time, in 
speaking of those days of difficulty, Jerry invariably at- 
tributed his success to God. These are his words: " It was 
a tremendous struggle to carry on this work under such diffi- 
culties, and as I look back to those stormy times I see the 
mighty hand of God leading and supporting me through it 
all. If it had not been for his all-sustaining grace I should 
have quit and got out of that wicked locality as fast as my 
legs would carry me, but he sustained me so fully that I did 
not even think to myself of giving up the fight. There was 
a special policeman detailed to look after the Mission at 
night, but he soon proved as much an enemy as any, until I 
took his number and complained of him, and he was moved 
out of the ward. 

"The meetings continued to do good during all this time. 
The Lord poured out his blessing, souls were saved, and the 
devil seemed to grow more mad every day. Seeing they 
could not get the best of us while we were looking at them, 
the rabble tried some new tactics, and would wait quietly 
until the meetings were started and going, when they would 
smash the windows. Some one would be praying or talking 
when crash would go a pane of glass. This continued un- 
til there was hardly a pane of glass left in the house. We 
wired them up then and left but one exposed ; this being 
toward the back of the building, near where the organ stood, 
had thus far escaped the fate of the others. 

" The meeting had commenced one afternoon when bang 



Fixing the Mission, 63 

came a brickbat through the window, close by the musi- 
cian's head. ' Oh,' he exclaimed as the brick whizzed 
past him, 'what's that?' 'Oh, that's nothing,' I replied 
quickly ; ' they send whole paving-stones sometimes ; that 
is only a piece of brick ! ' ' Hallelujah ! ' cried out one of 
the audience; 'let them come! The Lord is our defence, 
so they can't harm us ! ' 

" It was about this time that the houses opposite being 
finished, they were thrown open for tenants, and a man 
named Johnny Wagstaff — a wretched fellow — moved in. 
He came with two big car-loads of furniture, and strutting 
around made all the show he possibly could. As he was 
about to go into the house with the last lot of goods some 
old acquaintance standing outside spoke to him, and he 
turned laughingly and said, ' Oh, I thought I'd come down 
and keep Brother McAuley company.' We hated to have 
that rum-hole there, for we had prayed God that no such 
place should ever prosper there. We kept on praying, and 
Johnny found us a thorn in his flesh, for we cut off his 
customers and hindered his sales. He fought hard, and 
was determined to beat us anyway if possible. I shall 
never forget one Fourth-of-July night. They had made up 
their minds to fix me and the ' Ould Mission ' that night 
anyway : so they procured an old barrel and placed it in 
the middle of the street ; they then set a watch at the door, 
and as soon as any one rose to testify they lighted di pack 
of fire-crackers and dropped them into the empty barrel. 
Of course with the terrible racket they made a man 
couldn't hear his own voice. This seemed to promise to 
be a great success and break up the meeting entirely, and 
would have done so if a happy thought had not helped 
me out. After we had tried several times in vain to hear 



64 Fire-works and Testimonies, 

each other, I said to the congregation, ' Now I want you 
to watch me : I'll select a hymn ahead of the time, and the 
moment I say '* Sing!'' just sing with allyounnight, and when 
I say, " Testify f' be ready and spring right up.* A convert 
arose and opened his mouth, when bang ! bang ! bang ! 
went the fireworks in the barrel. * Sing ! ' I shouted, and 
they fairly roared ; my ! what lungs they had, and you 
couldn't hear those old fireworks at all ! Just as soon as 
that pack was out I called * Testify ! * and a brother jumped 
up, and before they could get the next pack ready and 
rightly on fire he was through, and then we drowned the 
racket again with a grand old hymn. I knew they could 
not keep this up forever on account of the expense, and 
soon they quit it and began to fire their roman candles at 
the back of the house ; but we kept right on, and we never 
had a better meeting. It was certainly a lively one all 
through, and as one expressed it afterwards, * We had a 
red-hot time.* Several were helped spiritually, and among 
others one soul was gloriously saved! Johnny grew poorer 
and poorer, and after a while his trouble increased daily, 
and at last his wife died and he gave up. 

" He came into the Mission, and I shook hands with him 
and talked to him kindly. He soon moved out, and it 
wasn't much trouble for him to move now, for instead of 
his car-loads of furniture he had only an old scuttle partly 
full of coal! He died shortly afterwards, and the place was 
again * To let.* We carried the matter to God, and prayed 
him to break up whoever came in there to sell rum ; and 
that prayer was heard, for fifteen or sixteen failed one 
after the other and moved out — several having lost all their 
money trying to do the devil's work in that place." 

Of another occasion Jerry speaks as follows : 



Battle with a Bully. 65 

" A friend whose gifts were given by the wholesale had 
charge of the meeting on the night in question, and stood 
with the open Bible in his hand reading. I had not reached 
the chapel, but was on the stairs coming down. Mr. A. 
had just finished a sentence, and was about to read further, 
when a fellow let out an unearthly yell — like an Indian — 
* Silence,' he shouted ; and Mr. A., who had never heard 
such an awful sound in his life, jumped as if he had been 
shot, and nearly dropped the Bible from his hands. I came 
in a second after, and couldn't think what was the matter. 
My wife kept nodding to me and pointing at the giant of a 
fellow who roared so. I didn't know anything about it — 
though I could see something had happened ; but out of 
respect to the Book that Mr. A. was now reading again, 
I asked no questions. 

" In a moment or two we were startled by another un- 
earthly yell, and I walked down to where this man sat. 
He was a perfect giant, with great, broad, massive shoulders, 
and his red shirt being open at the neck showed the heavy 
matted hair on his breast, making him look like a lion. I 
spoke to him kindly, and told him he would have to be 
good or go out, and informed him that we always insisted 
on good order. He pointed over his shoulder to his chum 
sitting behind him, as much as to say that it was he that 
created the disturbance ; but I paid no attention to his 
motions, and kept on talking to him. I then went back to 
my seat, determined to keep an eye on him. 

*' Mr. A. went on with the reading and pretty soon I saw 
this bully drop his head, and in another minute he uttered 
that terrible yell for the third time. I knew I was in for 
it now, for if I let this fellow get the best of us our last 
hope of ever going on with our meetings undisturbed 



66 A Desperate Contest. 

would be gone. I thought of this, and then I looked at him, 
and knew that a row with such a great brute of a fellow 
was no joke ; but the work of the Lord was at stake, so I 
walked down to where he sat and told him firmly he must 
leave. 

" * Ah, go on ! * he growled. ' What's the matter wid 
you ? * 

" * Come,' I answered quietly, * you must go out, or I'll 
put you out.* 

*' He looked at me a moment, but made no move to do 
as I told him. I then reached out and caught him by the 
collar, when he coolly threw his arms over the back of the 
seat, locking his hands together with a grip like a vise, 
and said, with a grin, ' Go ahead, old fellow.' I suppose 
he thought I could not lift him. I ran my hand down to 
get a good hold of his shirt-collar, and surging back, I 
brought him to his feet, bench and all. I dragged him out 
into the aisle, but he clung to the long bench till one end 
of it suddenly struck the ceiling and that broke his hold. 
I grabbed him by the throat now, as he struck at me square 
from the shoulder and tried to hit me between the eyes ; 
but he soon found out that I had not forgotten all I knew 
of the ' manly art ' when I stopped his blows cleverly, and 
in return gave him another shove nearer the door, tighten- 
ing my grip on his throat all the time. 

" He kept hitting at me like a madman, but failed every 
time to get a blow home on me, while in the mean time 
we were getting nearer and nearer the door. When not 
striking at me he would clutch at anything and everything 
— the benches, the heads of those near him, whatever he 
could get hold of — trying to stop his progress. 

" I felt the God of battles was my helper, and I was bound 



Winning the Victory. 67 

to win. It was like a battle between the kingdoms of good 
and evil. By the time we got to the door we were in such 
a fearful struggle that when we struck the doors — about 
two inches thick, and built of hard wood — we carried them 
clear off the hinges, and split one door all up. By this time 
he was black in the face from my grip on his throat, and he 
gasped, ' Let go ! 1-e-t, g-o ! I'll be-have ; 1-e-t, g-o, J-e-r- 
J-e>r-r-y.' 

" * Ah,' I said, as I gave him one more squeeze and a 
tighter one, and shoved him off. ^ Ah ! ah ! you great old 
coward, you're no man after all ! ' He begged hard, and I 
let him go. When we got out on the sidewalk where I had 
dragged him, I found it had been a put-up job ; for across 
the street stood a lot of his chums shouting, ' Give it to 
him, Jackson. Give ould Hallelujah Jerry fits ; ' but they 
did not try to help him. ' He won't give it to him, nor 
you either,' I replied. 

" As soon as Jackson caught his breath he ran across the 
street where there was a new building, and he and some of 
the rest picked up bricks and prepared to brick-bat me. I 
didn't give them time, but walking coolly over to them I 
said, ' Ah, you cowards, drop those bricks — drop them ! ' 
and they did, and ran for their lives. I then saw two 
policemen standing looking on and laughing at them. 

** I then returned to the Mission, and joined in singing 
* Rock of Ages, cleft for me,' which they had been singing 
all through the row. Things went on about as usual after 
this, but the would-be disturbers were a little more careful 
for fear of meeting with a similar defeat, for this man 
Jackson was one of the worst men in that worst of streets. 

"After a while, however, another disturber came in and 
thought he would try a new trick on me. He made some 



68 Another DisHtrber. 

disturbance, but I saw he had been drinking, and said, 
* Don't mind that poor fellow, friends ; he has been taking 
a little too much gin.' 

" ' Not a drap of gin, Jerry,' he replied. * Nothing but 
good ould bourbon whiskey.' 

*' I saw he had got to be bounced, so I started up a good 
hymn and went for him ; when he saw me coming he laid 
right down on his back on the floor, thinking I couldn't 
get him out in that position. It may be he had heard how 
I put Jackson out, and took this way of getting the best 
of me. 

** * All right, young man,' says I ; * if you prefer going out 
that way, I've no objections ; ' and taking him by the collar 
on the back of his neck I dragged him down the aisle and 
out he went." 



Water Street Man-traps. 69 



CHAPTER VI. 

MORE ABOUT WATER STREET. 

** Put thou thy trust in God, 
In duty's path go on, 
Fix on His work thy steadfast eye, 
So shall thy work be done." 

Some idea of the neighborhood in which Jerry worked is 
necessary to a right understanding of the nature of the 
task upon his shoulders. We have quoted already some of 
his words in reference to his surroundings. Upon another 
occasion he thus describes them : 

** But few can have any idea of the terrible dens with 
which this wicked locality was crowded. The basements 
were especially loathsome, several having particular names, 
such as ' The Well,' * The Man-trap,* etc. They were 
merely holes in the ground under the houses, where the 
tide backed in twice a day at high-water. In each of these 
dark holes, without any window or outlet, with no sinks or 
anything in the form of an opening, for any purpose what- 
ever, except the entrance from the street, from four to six 
girls or women and as many men used to live. From these 
death-holes the girls would come out and button-hole men 
as they passed by ; sometimes they would snatch the hat 
from a sailor's head and dart back into their den. If he 
was wise he would keep right on and let his hat go, for if 
fool enough to go inside it would be the worse for him ; 
he would most likely be thrown out after being beaten and 



70 Ill-gotten Gains. 

robbed, if not murdered, for sometimes men never came 
out of those holes alive. The inmates of these filthy dens 
died off rapidly, but their places were filled right away by 
others. 

" This terrible state of things weighed on my mind so that 
I could not sleep at night, but tossed restlessly upon my 
bed, and I felt that to clear my conscience I must do some- 
thing to break up these fearful places. I found to my 
astonishment that the owner of the property where these 
places were kept was a very rich man living on Broadway, 
and was considered a very nice, respectable gentleman. I 
went to him with my burden, but he paid no more attention 
to me than he would to the barking of a dog. I could not 
for the life of me understand how this fine gentleman could 
be so indifferent to things that seemed so terrible to me. 
My astonishment was not so great when afterwards I found 
out that each of these holes brought him in from $30 to 
$40 per month ! 

" Seeing that it was no use to expect anything from this 
man, I next applied to a well-known Society, and laid the 
matter before the agent. The latter was very enthusiastic, 
and told me with perfect assurance he would attend to it 
right away, ' and he would soon have Water Street as quiet 
as Fifth Avenue.* Encouraged by this I went home and 
waited to see what they would do. 

"I was becoming discouraged again when I didn't see 
anything of the tremendous clearing out that had been 
promised, until one day on looking out of the window, I 
saw some policemen standing near the curbstone on the 
opposite side, staring up at the Mission. My first thought 
was that the Mission was on fire, so I walked over and in- 
quired, * What's the matter ? Is it on fire ? ' * No,* one of 



Fighting the Rum-sellers, 71 

them replied, ' we were sent down here to watch the Mission.* 
I looked at them in astonishment ; to watch the Mission^ 
while here in broad sight, and within a few feet of them, 
these wicked wretches were robbing and plundering every- 
body they could get hold of. 

" * Why,* I exclaimed, as soon as I could control myself, 
* I didn't want any one to watch the Mission^ but I want to 
break up these dens around here ! ' ' Oh, we've got nothing 
to do but to obey orders,* was the cool answer ; * and all 
the orders we got was to come here and watch the Mission.* 
I finally went to another temperance man, paid him some 
money, but with no better results ; but by this time I was 
learning how to attend to the matter myself, so having 
received some money from Mrs. Dr. Barnet and another 
lady, and adding to it the little I had, I went to work. I 
selected some of the converts to get the proper evidence as 
witnesses, and then would bring the parties into court, and 
having good clear testimony to actual offences committed, 
I secured convictions, and thus broke up these dens one 
after another, until they became as scarce as they had once 
been plentiful. 

**But it was no easy matter, and I had to contend with a 
bitter opposition, not only from the proprietors of the 
places themselves, but from their friends among the lawyers 
and others holding official positions ; judges, lawyers, and 
some of the police authoritjes began to go for me, but 
knowing I was in the right, I fought on. A lawyer, whose 
name has been before the public a good deal lately, kept 
me on the witness-stand for two hours and a half at one 
time, insulting and abusing me, in trying to clear a man 
named Dugan whom I had arrested. The facts of the 
case were as follows : 



72 An Invisible License, 

" This fellow (Dugan) kept a dive, and I went in and 
demanded to see his license in order to secure evidence in 
this way that he was the proprietor. The bar-tender 
replied, ' The license is locked up in the safe, and can't be 
got till the man who has the key comes in.* I knew this 
was a trick, for the law demands that the license shall be 
hung up in a conspicuous place, where anybody can see it. 
I waited patiently, until one day, while standing at the door 
with the policeman who was to be stationed at the Mission, 
I saw Dugan enter his dive. I spoke to the policeman, 
and asked if he would go over with me. ' Certainly,' he 
replied, and over we started. We had alniost reached the 
door when he suddenly stopped and refused to go any 
farther. 

'' ' Why, what's the matter ? ' I asked. 

" ' Oh, I don't want to get into a muss, for Dugan is a 
friend of the inspector, and he'd go for me.' 

'' ' Ah, you old coward ! ' I replied ; and there I was, the 
laughing-stock of the whole crowd of ruffians and degraded 
women -who were looking on. I was not defeated, however, 
in the attempt to arrest him, for shortly after this I had him 
taken up and brought before the judge, and that was the 
time when I received the rough handling from the lawyer. 

" I not only had to put up with the abuse of the lawyers 
and others, but was bothered with repeated intentional 
delays. The case was called several different times, but 
each time there was some pretended reason for laying it 
over: twice or more they pretended that Dugan was too 
sick to put in an appearance, and thus the thing was kept up 
to worry my life out. My lawyer failed to do his duty, so 
in the end I lost the case. 

" Shortly afterwards Dugan was really taken sick, and grow- 



Retur7iing Good for Evil. 73 

ing worse, it looked as if he was going to die. I Knew how 
he hated me, but I also knew he was now sick and in trouble, 
so I went over and knocked at his door. ' May I come in?' 
I asked kindly ; ' I don't want to intrude on you, but would 
like to come in if you will let me.' He recognized my 
voice, but nevertheless he answered faintly, ' Yes, come in if 
you want to ! ' 

'■'■ I entered, and after talking with him and his wife a 
short time, I knelt in prayer. I prayed earnestly for them, 
and held them up in the arms of faith to a sin-pardoning 
Christ, who never turned one poor trembling soul away, and 
who loves even his enemies, and would do them good. 
They were both very much broken up, and wept freely, and 
I left. 

" Encouraged by my first visit, I called again, and brought 
a beautiful, sweet bouquet of flowers. Again I called, and 
this time managed to secure a few peaches, they being very 
scarce at that season of the year, and brought them to him. 
He seemed to appreciate my kindness, and was more broken 
up than ever. We talked over matters, and, referring to 
his business of his own accord, he said he was very sorry 
he ever engaged in the rum traffic at all : knew it was 
wrong, but once in he could not get out without losing 
everything he had, and this he had not the moral courage 
to do while in health and strength. He lingered a short 
time, and died from exhaustion." 

In all the history of our brother's work it is most inspir- 
ing to see that the more and the fiercer the opposition, the 
more did God honor his labors. So he speaks as follows of 
one of these seasons of bitterest opposition on the part of 
the enemies aroused : 

*' Meanwhile the work of soul-saving went on with wonder- 



74 Captain and Engineer Saved. 

ful success, and God's presence was manifested more and 
more. There would be as many as twenty-five or thirty 
forward for prayers at one time, while the aisle would be 
crowded with those unable to get seats. Still the meetings 
increased in interest and attendance until, there being no 
room inside, the people gathered around the door on the 
street. We could not find standing-room for more than 
half of those who wanted to get in. 

" The revival took effect for a while among the captains of 
the Baltimore freight-boat line, and became of considerable 

interest. One captain by the name of B was converted, 

as were also all of his crew excepting the cook. 

" One night his engineer, having heard from others, came 
to see for himself what was going on. The captain was 
there that night seeking help, and before the meeting 
closed the engineer became deeply convicted and knelt to 
ask God to forgive his sins. While we were all on our 
knees some one whispered to me that Captain B. and his 
engineer did not speak to each other. * Is that so ? ' I 
answered, and getting off my knees I went to where he was 
and whispered : 

" * Captain, you must be an ^«;/2^/ hypocrite ? ' 

" 'Why? How so?' he replied in astonishment. 

*' * Because you claim to be seeking the Lord, and yet you 
won't speak to so-and-so over there, and are holding hatred 
in your heart. Shame on you ! ' 

" He dropped his head, and leaving him I went softly over 
to the engineer and whispered the same words to him. It 
was but a moment when they both sprang to their feet at 
once, as if moved by the same impulse, and meeting, fairly 
hugged each other, and wept, and then knelt down together 
and cried to God for forgiveness. They prayed earnestly 



Reconciled to God and Man. 75 

for mercy, and the captain was the first to receive the 
answer. He clapped his hands, and the joy was beam- 
ing in his face. But he had hardly time to straighten up 
fully when the engineer also caught the joyful sound of for- 
giveness and was on his feet in an instant ; and then they 
began shaking hands and hugging each other again. 

''The Spirit of the Lord had touched them, and all their 
enmity and hatred had vanished like the dew before the 
rising sun. Others soon caught the spirit, and gathered 
around them, shaking hands and rejoicing, shouting and 
weeping with them, until some of the outsiders ran across 
the street, thinking the old Mission was tumbling down. 

" I asked one of the boatmen who was saved at that time, 
when he was testifying, ' How do you know you were con- 
verted ?' 

" ' Well, I'll tell you,' he replied ; * I went from here to 
my boat, and locking the door, just made up my mind never 
to open it until converted. And I kept my word!' 

" * How could you tell when it was done ? ' 

" * Well, I'll have to explain that in my own way,' he 
answered, ' but it seems to me the Lord just took, as it 
were, something like a barnacle-scraper [a keen, sharp- 
edged, three-cornered piece of steel, fastened to a long 
handle and used to scrape off the little shellfish and other 
deposits that gather on the bottom of vessels] and scraped 
my heart all out clean, and I haven't felt anything wrong 
there since ! ' 

" Another came forward, and I asked him to pray for him- 
self. 

" ' I can't. I don't know how,' he repHed mournfully. 

" ' Oh yes, you can — just say the Lord's Prayer.' 

"'I don't know it.' 



76 An Original Prayer. 

" * Did you never hear it ? * 

" * No ; I've heard about it, but I never heard //.' 

" * Well, just pray in your own way. Ask the Lord for 
what you want in your own words.* He bowed his head, 
and in a moment broke out, ' O Lord ! O Lord ! scratch 
my sins out, and then keep them scratched out T and the 
Lord answered that simple but honest prayer." 

These stories of redeeming grace might be multiplied a 
hundredfold had full records been kept, but Jerry appears 
to have had little care for making up grand totals. When 
souls were saved he gave God the glory, and was en- 
couraged to go forward in efforts to win others, leaving 
the record to be made up in heaven. The few cases that 
follow in these pages are illustrative of many more. 

"One night," he says, "we had a wonderful meeting ; a 
Catholic girl was earnestly seeking salvation. She had pleaded 
and prayed for forgiveness for a long time without experienc- 
ing any change, while the Spirit of God seemed to hover over 
that congregation and every other prayer was stilled in awe, 
as all present listened breathlessly to the simple but deep 
and fervent petition of that poor girl. She actually seemed 
to talk to God face to face, with a holy reverence that sub- 
dued every listener and hushed every doubting thought. All 
at once she ceased praying aloud, and bowed her head in 
silence upon the seat, while a peculiar hush rested on every 
heart, as if expecting a quick answer. After a moment's 
silence she slowly raised her face toward heaven, and, with 
hands outstretched, whispered distinctly, * He is corning ! 
He is coming! ' bringing her hands together in triumph as 
she uttered the last word. Her prayer was answered, her 
faith accepted. She made no farther demonstration for a 
moment, and nothing could be heard but her deep breathing 



A Prodigal Reclauned. yj 

and the subdued sobs of some others kneeling near her, 
wiiile they actually trembled so that the rattle of the bench 
at which they knelt could be distinctly heard, in spite of 
their efforts to hold it still. This girl became a remarkably 
earnest and devout worker. It was really wonderful to 
witness her faith and her success in reaching others, espe- 
cially women, and bringing them to Christ. She remained 
faithful, and removed to the far West afterwards, where she 
continued an efficient and highly esteemed Christian worker. 

" It was about this time that an Irishman who had worked 
for McCreery & Co. of Broadway came to us. He was a 
remarkably handsome man, and came of a wealthy family of 
consequence in Ireland. He was dissipated and almost a 
wreck, when a trip to this country was proposed, to remove 
him beyond the influence of his old associates, and thus 
reform him. But change of place is not a change of heart, 
as was soon shown in his case, and new comrades of similar 
habits are not hard to find in America, when a person has a 
little money to share with them in debauchery. 

" He grew worse until his father refused to send him any 
more money to squander, and in this condition some one 
brought him to the Mission. He was led to seek the Lord, 
and was soundly converted. He kept up a correspondence 
with his father, who soon discovered by the general tone of 
his letters that there was some remarkable change in his 
boy for the better, and after a further trial he received him 
to his affections again, and sent him money with which to 
return home in joy and restored confidence. He came and 
bade us a tender good-by, and said he expected to have 
one of his father's houses opened and run as a Mission sim- 
ilar to the Water Street Mission, as soon as circumstances 
would permit." 



78 A Hungry Stranger. 



CHAPTER VII. 

TROPHIES OF GRACE. 

"Welcome, welcome! sinner here! 
Hang not back through shame or fear; 
Doubt not, nor distrust the call; 
Mercy is proclaimed to all. 

"Welcome, weeping penitent; 
Grace has made thy heart relent. 
Welcome, long estranged child; 
God in Christ is reconciled." 

** Another remarkable incident occurred about this time. 
A gentleman from the West, afterwards the editor of the 
/ Record, came to New York on some mining busi- 
ness. Being a drinking man, he drank to excess, spent 
his money, neglected his business, and at last he became so 
reduced he could not raise the price of a drink, or even a 
meal to keep body and soul together. Famished with 
hunger, he wandered down to the Battery, where he saw a 
crowd around a street-preacher. Anything was better than 
to be alone, with the craving of the rum appetite, the 
gnawing desires for food, and the lashings of his conscience, 
as he thought of the cheerful home and loving, trustful 
wife who was expecting his return, while he was wandering 
here a penniless, deserted drunkard. He went toward the 
gathering and took his seat on one of the benches. He 
listened a while, but felt no interest. Finally it seemed 



Finds His Way to the Mission. 79 

he could do without food no longer, and turning to a dirty- 
tramp who sat on the bench beside him, he asked, ' Say, 
where can a fellow get something to eat ? Tm dead broke, 
and have had no food for several days.* The tramp 
turned toward him and said, 'Why, don't you know! Why, 
go up to Jerry's, of course ! it's a big lay-out about ten 
o'clock Sunday morning. All the bums here take it in, I 
tell yer ! Yer get a good bowl of soup and a chunk o' ' 
bread ; and say,' he continued, as he smacked his lips in 
anticipation, * the soup's got meat in it too ! ' He had no 
choice now, so getting the directions from his new acquaint- 
ance, he came to the Mission. I saw him as soon as he en- 
tered, and picked him out as a peculiar case. He carried a 
cane, not worth pawning, and though he bore every mark 
of dissipation, a judge of human nature could see in a 
moment that he had seen better days. I walked up to him 
and received him cordially, treating him as a visitor; shook 
hands, spoke pleasantly, etc., as if I didn't know he was 
dead broke, and in want. He looked at me and said, * Say, 
I'm hungry ; won't you give me something to eat ? ' 

'■'■ I took him up to the corner of the table, gave him a 
knife and fork — the rest had to go for it with their fingers — 
and in half a minute the bowl was empty, and bread, meat, 
and all were devoured. I filled it the second time carelessly, 
pretending not to notice his hunger. 

'* After he had eaten sufficiently, I talked with him about 
his soul. I was deeply in earnest, and he felt it, and finally 
broke down, wept, and prayed. He then told me his story, 
' Oh,' said he, in tears, ' I'm a man that has a happy home, 
and a loving wife with a dear little child. I have not writ- 
ten home, and they have no idea where I am. I came on 
here to see about some mining stock, but I fell into bad 



8o A Wifes Sad Search. 

company and took to drinking, and all my money is gone, 
and I dare not write home now.' He did not get clearly 
saved, though he made some effort in that direction. He 
left off drinking, and telegraphing home, his wife sent him 
$100 to return to Michigan with. I bade him good-by, 
and shook hands with him as he left to take the train ; but 
alas for him ! he concluded to take one drink, thinking it 
no harm if used in moderation ; and the first, as usual, de- 
manded a second, and he remained in the city, and his 
waiting wife and child were disappointed in their expecta- 
tion of father's return. He became beastly drunk, and 
after a short spree found himself penniless and friendless 
again. In despair he went and enlisted in the navy, think- 
ing in this way to bury himself from the eyes and search of 
all his friends, and at the same time be placed where he 
could not get hold of the cause of all his trouble — the 
cursed rum. His wife waited patiently for him ; but failing 
to see or hear anything of him, she could stand the sus- 
pense no longer, and came to New York to look for him. 

"■ She searched in every direction, but failed to find him ; 
and then, remembering that his address had been 316 
Water Street, she almost gave up all hope, for on inquiring, 
she heard that Water Street was the lowest, most wicked 
street in the whole city. Almost broken-hearted, she came 
down to the Mission, and supposing from what she had 
heard that it was a bad house, she trembled to come in 
and make any inquiries. She decided, after waiting as long 
as she dared, to take a look in at the windows anyway, and 
shading her eyes with her hands, she peered in through the 
glass, and was struck to see right before her eyes two 
mottoes, *■ Have Faith in God,' and ' Stand up for Jesus,' 
on the wall. 'Surely,' she thought, 'this cant be a bad 



Seeking her H2isband — -finding the Saviour. 8i 

house; and she finally mustered up courage enough to come 
inside, and not seeing her husband, to inquire of the janitor. 
* Does Mr. M live here.' 

" * No ma'am,' replied the person questioned ; ' he did 
stop here, but has gone home to his family out West.' 

"• ' When did he go ? ' she asked fearfully ; the man an- 
swered, and she knew from the date mentioned that he 
would have reached home weeks before she left there if 
nothing had happened, and with a stifled moan she sank 
faint-like on a seat. 

'* The truth now burst upon her mind that he was again on 
one of those fearful sprees. No one could tell her where — 
in the city, or in some railroad town along the route from 
here to her home ; no one could tell her, whether in prison 
or out, whether dead or alive ; who could know ? She 
thought of this, and then of her deserted home and little 
one so many miles away ; and heart-broken, hopeless, and 
worn out, she burst into tears. As soon as she could con- 
trol herself sufficiently she told him who she was, and then 
we came in and did what we could to comfort her. 

'' She began a diligent search for her poor drink-enslaved 
husband, but for a long time it was all in vain. She em- 
ployed the best detectives she could get. In the mean time 
she knelt, burdened and sin-sick, at the feet of Christ, and 
was gloriously saved. 'Just think of it, coming 1500 miles 
to get converted ! ' she exclaimed. Surely God moves in a 
mysterious way. She continued the search without getting 
any track of her husband, until, becoming completely dis- 
couraged in all human efforts, she took it all to God in 
prayer and left it with him. 

*' She was about to start for home, when Mr. M was 

discovered in the Navy Yard. Steps were immediately taken 
6 



82 Husband and Wife Saved, 

to get his release, and they were surprised to find so little 
opposition from those who knew him there ; but we soon 
learned that it was because his melancholy and despondent 
state of mind unfitted him entirely for any service ; and not 
only affected him, but his comrades also, to such a degree, 
they too were made homesick. He became a nuisance, 
and they were actually glad to get rid of him with his 
blues. 

** The devoted wife went after her repentant husband, and 
as soon as they could get to the city they came direct to 
the Mission, and bowed together before God. Such a 
sight was scarcely ever seen on earth ; and as the poor fel- 
low, amid the sobs and prayers of his wife and the rest of 
us, gave his heart to Christ, we felt assured there was joy 
in the presence of the angels of God. 

" He returned home with his now happy companion, and 
we soon heard that his business had proved a success, and 
was bringing him in a great deal of money ; his prosperity 
proved too much for him, however, and he fell from his 
Christian profession. He remained in a backslidden condi- 
tion but a short time, and returned to the Lord again, was 
fully recovered, and remained so to the hour of his death, 
when he passed over in the full triumphs of faith. 

" His happy death was an evidence of God's wonderful 
power to rescue the poor drunkard from the grip of sin, 
and clean him up for heaven." 

Among the many marked and memorable trophies of 
grace was a man formerly known as '* Rowdy" Brown, the 
name perhaps sufficiently indicating the character of the 
individual. But so far from marvelling that such a man 
should be saved, we remember that grace saves the lost. 
Our divine Redeemer only vindicates his name as such, and 



Story of '* Rowdy' Brown, Zt^ 

illustrates the nature of his mission on earth, when he saves 
those lowest sunken in the degradation of sin. '' Rowdy" 
Brown's story is thus told by Jerry: 

" About this time there occurred one of the most remark- 
able events of our history. There was a certain man called 
' Rowdy' Brown, a great, powerfully-built, courageous fel- 
low, who was a terror to the Fourth Ward. He had been 
a mate on the Liverpool packets, and was a savage brute. 
He hated religion and everything belonging to it. Once 
he happened to see a man sitting on the forecastle reading 
his Bible, and without a word or sign of provocation. Brown 
drew back his heavy boot and kicked the poor fellow square 
in the mouth, knocking his teeth out, and disfiguring him 
cruelly. He went to California once, and while there, it 
was reported, killed several men. We always receive such 
rumors carefully, knowing how things grow and are exag- 
gerated by travelling from one to another ; but there was 
probably some truth in the stories, for when questioned by 
me he did not deny them, and in fact acknowledged that 
there was something in it by explaining to me how some of 
the cases occurred. 

*' He seemed utterly fearless of consequences to himself, 
as he proved by standing one day cursing a man to his face 
who stood with a revolver in each of his hands, and fired 
both their contents into his body. That's the kind of man 
Rowdy Brown was. 

'* He was stopping at Mr. Rhody's new Sailors' Home, 
when he was told that one of his sailor chums was con- 
verted at the Mission. He was mad when he heard of it, 
and swore a big oath, adding, * I will take a bottle of 
whiskey down there, and when that feller gets up to talk, 
I'll take him by the upper jaw in one hand and the lower 



84 A Wonder of Grace. 

jaw In the other, tear his mouth open, and pour the whiskey 
down him or break his back in the attempt.' And he 
meaiit it, and was capable of doing it. 

" I did not know of his threat or of his coming, or I should 
have been on the watch for him. He came armed with the 
black bottle, and waited for his old companion to testify, in 
order to carry out his plan. While waiting he listened, and 
listening, became interested, until all of a sudden he felt a 
strange feeling coming over him, and he began to tremble. 
He fought it off with all his natural obstinacy, but it was no 
use : it continued to grow stronger, and when his friend 
arose to testify, this human lion was as' tame as a lamb. 
When the testimonies were ended, and sinners were invited 
to come forward, Brown stood up and called out ' Oh, 
pray for me ! ' 

*' Everything was in a state of quiet but intense excitement 
in a moment, for many present knew his desperate character. 
We gathered around him, and how he cried for mercy ! It 
was awful to hear that man groan and beg! His strong 
body was racked with the anguish of his soul. He contin- 
ued seeking in this manner until the meeting closed, but 
apparently with but little encouragement. On the second 
night, after getting into his bed, he was praying earnestly, 
when suddenly the light broke into his heart, and he knew the 
work was done. He jumped out of bed, and soon aroused 
his mate who slept with him, with his shouts of praise to 
God for his pardoning mercy. He became a diligent 
worker, and sometimes in his earnestness would go out on 
the street, pick up a poor sailor, and almost haul him into the 
Mission. When the invitation was given to those anxious 
to be saved to rise for prayers, he would put his arm under 
theirs and fairly hoist them up. Melted by the burning, 



A Captain Astounded. 85 

loving prayers, many a man would weep and yield himself 
to be saved. 

" Brown was liberal with his means, and often on his re- 
turn from a voyage he would give us fifteen or twenty 
dollars at a time to help on the work. 

" How he lived his religion aboard ship and among his 
associates can be best told by relating the following inci- 
dents : He shipped on one occasion, after his conversion, 
aboard the West India brig Nellie ; the captain was ashore 
one day while at Matanzas, and met an old acquaintance, a 
captain also, whom Brown had formerly known and in fact 
had beaten unmercifully a few years before. After a few 
minutes' conversation the captain of the Nellie remarked, 
* Captain, do you know who is converted ? ' 

"'No, I don't.' 

** * " Rowdy" Brown.' 

" ' What ! ' exclaimed the other, looking at his friend as 
if he thought him crazy, * Rowdy Brown / ' then adding 
slowly, after a moment's silence, * I don't believe it.' 

" * Well, he is, all the same, and is aboard my brig now / ' 

'' * I can't believe it,' continued the doubter. ' Do you 
know he gave me a most unmerciful thrashing once, besides 
cutting away my brig another time ? He was a devil; he 
cant be converted.' 

" * Yes, sir, he is,' insisted the first, * and he is going to 
have a prayer-meeting on board to-night. Gome and attend 
it, won't you ? ' 

" The other made no reply, but seemed completely bewil- 
dered by the astonishing news he had just heard, and they 
parted. 

" ' Rowdy ' Brown had fixed up the deck of the Nellie, and 
had a great canvas stretched for an awning, with a sign paint- 



86 Jerry McAuley s Prayer -Meeting Aboard, 

ed, bearing in large letters, 'Jerry McAuley's Prayer- 
Meeting HERE THIS AFTERNOON AT THREE O'CLOCK.* 
He would run the boats backward and forward, and bring 
off loads of sailors to the meeting. A revival broke out, and 
spread among the crews of the different vessels. Gentlemen 
and ladies also from the shore, who were from the United 
States but were living there, came aboard and became 
deeply interested in the meetings. 

" One day * Rowdy ' Brown went ashore, and, meeting a 
sailor he knew slightly, asked him to come to the meeting. 
The man showed a bitter, hateful spirit, and replied, with a 
sneer, *No, I worCt!' 'Do come, oh -do!' said Brown 
earnestly ; and yielding to a sudden impulse, before the 
man could reply he fell on his knees, and with eyes filled 
with tears, begged him to come to Christ. The man looked 
at him for a minute, but hardening his heart against those 
strange pleadings, growled, ' No, I won't go: I've been to 
McAuley's in New York, and he couldn't convert me, and 
you can't neither.' 

" Brown declared, on meeting some of his Christian helpers 
directly afterwards, that as soon as that man said those words 
all interest for him left, and he had a strange feeling as if cold 
water had struck him, and arose from his knees, wondering 
what it meant. The next day the man who so bitterly re- 
fused the offers of mercy was working on a scaffold over 
the side of his vessel, when suddenly he was missed by 
some one who wanted him. The scaffold was empty ; and 
though the vessel was searched, he could not be found. 
Shortly afterwards his body was discovered through the 
clear water, lying face downward with his mouth in the sand 
at the bottom. He was fished up, and a black bottle, 
partly filled with liquor, was found in his pocket. He 



Dying in tJie Faith, 87 

probably became drunk, and fell off the scaffold into the 
water. It was a strange affair, and so affected his shipmates, 
who seemed to think it was the voice of God in a fearful 
providence, that they became serious, and the captain of 
the vessel, with his entire crew, were brought to the 
Saviour. 

" From the last account we received from Brown he was 
doing well, had secured some property in Canada, and was 
living a consistent Christian life. Later on we heard of his 
death, and had every reason to believe he died in the 
faith." 



88 A Mistake and What Came of It, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A MISTAKE AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 

" Sow in the morn thy seed, 

At eve hold not thine hand ; 
To doubt and fear give thou no heed, 
Broadcast it o'er the land. 

"Thou canst not toil in vain ; 

Cold, heat, and moist and dry, 
Shall foster and mature the grain 
For garners in the sky." 

Before us lies a copy of the " Report of the Helping Hand 
for Men, 316 Water Street, for the years ending October 
1873 and 1874," from which brief extracts have already 
been made. It is of itself an interesting document, and 
bears upon its cover the words of the Lord Jesus, "Accord- 
ing to your faith be it unto you." Interest is added to the 
pamphlet by reason of Jerry's trial of faith in connection 
with its publication. We will let him tell the story in his 
own words. 

"About this time (October, 1874) something happened 
that proved how God will take even our ignorance and 
blunders and make them to glorify him, if we are only hon- 
est in trying to serve him. It was thought best to get out 
a report of the Mission in order to let people know what 
we were doing. We could not afford to get out an annual 



Faith and Wo7^ks Illustrated. 89 

report, and so we had to make one for every two years an- 
swer. This was rather new business to me, and consider- 
ing it a big undertaking, I thought it ought to be done on 
a large scale. So I ordered ten thousand copies printed ! 
When I spoke of it to the others interested they were taken 
all aback, and were almost indignant. ' Ten thousand copies / 
Why, Jerry, what are you thinking about ? Where is the 
money to come from to pay for such an amount of print- 
ing ? ' Of course I felt bad, and I told them it was new 
business to me, and I had done the best I could. They 
acted as though they felt that my being sorry would not 
pay the bills, and were only half satisfied. 

" In my trouble I remembered Him who had never failed 
me when I trusted Him. So I said, ' Well, never mind : I 
have faith the Lord will send some one to pay it.' I 
was determined now to make the best of it, and that as 
long as we had them on our hands to pay for they should 
not be idle ; so after considerable thought I struck a novel 
plan to use them. I persuaded Brother Charles Anderson 
to help me, and we went up-town on a pilgrimage to get 
them among the churches. We started out, each with a 
great pack of reports on his back, to fulfil our mission 
We failed to lighten our burdens at the sanctuaries, with, 
I believe, but three exceptions — Dr. John Hall's, Dr. Wil- 
liam Taylor's, and Dr. Booth's churches, where they let us 
leave some. I approached the sexton of Dr. Hall's and 
told him what I wanted, and begged him to assist me. ' I 
want you to assist me,' I said ; ' you know we are poor and 
trying to do good, yet hardly able to live along; by just giv- 
ing your consent to let me lay these in the pews before the 
people come you may do a great deal of good.' He made 
no objections after a little, and going in I distributed them 



90 Jerry s Faith Honored. 

in the different pews, and took my departure, leaving results 
with the Lord. The next day a carriage drove up to the 
Mission door and two ladies stepped out. I had been pray- 
ing for help, for I thought I had done some terrible thing 
and was awfully burdened over getting the little Mission in 
debt. As I saw them entering my heart jumped up into 
my throat. Faith said, ' There's an answer to your prayer.' 
No, thought I, that can't be, for they have not had time to 
read the reports yet, unless they did so while the doctor 
was preaching or as soon as they reached home, which did 
not seem likely. 

" They came in and began to talk with me, and I saw from 
their words that they had seen the inside of the pamphlet. 
They handed me fifty dollars each and departed, refusing 
to give any names. I was happy — ' What a miracle ! One 
hundred dollars I Whew ! Three cheers ! ' said I, hardly 
able to hold myself in ; ' we're safe now. Here's the 
money. Hurrah ! ! ' I needn't add that my wife and I had 
a little praise-meeting all by ourselves right away. 

" A young lady named Miss S , a member of Dr. John 

Hall's church, also found the report in her pew, and turning 
over the leaves carelessly saw something that attracted her 
attention, and, as she told us afterwards, she soon became so 
interested she didn't get a word of the doctor's big sermon, 
and before the meeting closed she made up her mind to 
come down and see for herself. She got an escort, and came 
to the old tumble-down Mission. After attending a num- 
ber of the meetings she became very deeply interested 
about her own soul's salvation. One Sunday night she was 
there, and we had a wonderful meeting : the Lord bared 
his arm there that night in power ; everybody felt it, and 
there were many tears and sobs as God touched heart after 



''An A wful Wicked Sinner. " 91 

heart in that room. While the meeting was in progress, 

Miss S slipped a beautiful cluster diamond-ring from 

her finger, and at the close of the service she passed it 
quietly into my wife's hands, and whispered earnestly, 
' Here, Mrs. McAuley, take this and sell it for the good of 
the Mission. Do pray for me, won't you ? I'm an awful 
wicked sinner ! ' We were surprised ; such a beautiful, 
well-dressed young lady ' an awful sinner ! ' and coming to 
be saved ! Why, that was worth more than all the diamond- 
rings in the world ! We talked with her the best we could, 
and she said as she left us that she would call the next even- 
ing about tea-time. 

" She came as she promised, and after some talk about 
spiritual things she knelt down alongside the old sofa and 
we prayed for her, and before she arose she gave her heart 
to Christ. All she could say was, ' I'm very unworthy, but 
if the Lord can condescend to take me, I will take him as 
my Saviour.' 

" She arose from her knees simply trusting in the Lord. 
The hour for meeting had now arrived, and as we started to 
go down-stairs to the chapel she said, *You must not ask 
me to speak in the public congregation ; if you should, it 
seems to me I should faint.' 'AH right,' I answered, 'if 
you faint, I'll have some one ready to pick you up.' 

" We went into the chapel and I opened the meeting. I 
had scarcely had time to sit down, when we were all amazed 

to see Miss S jump to her feet, and with glowing words 

testify to Christ's power to save. The Lord blessed her in 
the act, and blessed her testimony to the good of others. 
She has continued faithful, and has acted in an efificient 
manner as a volunteer missionary wherever she has resided 
since. The ring, we were afterwards told, cost her three 



92 The Gambler Saved, 

hundred dollars, but the Lord gave her the signet-ring of 
adoption, worth a thousand times more than all the dia- 
monds in New York. 

" About this time in our history a professional gambler 
named William Fitzmorris, supposed to be the inventor of 
the envelope game, came to the Mission. He had been 
keeping a gambling house up-town, but according to his 
statement, had to come down so heavy to keep on the right 
side of the police, that his business would not stand the 
strain. So he moved into a new place in a basement, and 
stationed three men at different points as lookouts, to keep 
the police from coming on him unawares — finding it 
cheaper to keep three men under salary than to pay the 
blackmail he had been paying before. 

** A certain notorious policy-dealer offered him three dol- 
lars a day to write policy-slips. How wonderfully God 
works, and how little we know what is to come of our 
plans! Fitzmorris accepted the job, and came down to see 
about it. Standing on the corner he saw our lamp, and 
asked somebody, ' What's that ? ' ' Why, that's Jerry 
McAuley's. You ought to take it in ; it's as good as a 
theatre.' He came in to see the fun, but became inter- 
ested, and the testimonies melted him all up and he came 
forward, knelt down, and was saved. He gave some fearful 
descriptions of his terrible business, and the scenes he had 
witnessed while engaged in it. He told how men of fami- 
lies would come in and stake little by little their earnings 
until every cent was gone ; then, fascinated by the game, 
they would strip off their clothing piece by piece until they 
could go no farther ; of the young girls sent by mothers 
to buy policy-slips for them, — sent into these hell-holes, amid 
the cursing and obscenity of the loungers there, by their 



A Dying Testimony. 93 

own mothers, — until step by step they began to be crazed 
over the game and would buy for themselves. From an ex 
periment it grew to be a habit, from a habit it became a 
passion, and in the end they would sell themselves to get 
money to gamble with. 

" His revelations were published in the daily papers, and 
his old associates became so enraged that they threatened 
to kill him. 

" We kept him with us, however, and thus protected him 
from their fury. His health continued to fail, and we ex- 
pected soon to have the sad task of laying him in the grave; 
but his friends came and took charge of him, and by his 
consent removed him to their home. He got no better, 
and it was plain to all that his end was near. He did not 
fear death, but continued strong in his faith, and clear in 
the assurance of his acceptance with God through Jesus 
Christ. Finally, when almost gone, he made a request to be 
carried to the dear old Mission, where he had found peace 
to his poor soul, that he might there testify to the precious 
love of Christ once more. Finding his heart was set on it, 
his friends consented, and he was brought in a carriage to 
the Mission, and there, held up on his feet by a man on 
each side of him, he gave his dying testimony. 

" It was a wonderful time ! It seemed as if we stood on 
the steps of Heaven, and you couldn't hear a breath. He 
stood and, with feeble voice and shining face, every word of 
convincing power, gave his last testimony : * I know I am dy- 
ing ', I knozv ity and because I know it I came here to give my 
dying testimony, to speak once more in this hallowed spot 
ere my tongue is silent forever.' You never can put on 
paper the tones of his voice or the effect of that wonder- 
ful scene. No one who was there will ever forget it." 



94 Souls Coming fro7n Far and Near, 

Tidings of the old Water Street work have gone out into 
all the earth, and fruits of grace gathered within its walls 
are to be found in all quarters of the globe. The audi- 
ences from night to night had always more or less of a 
transient nature, and while often persons living close by 
despised the place, men and women from afar found in it a 
beacon-light, directing them into the, haven of eternal blessed- 
ness. Still at times gems for the Saviour's crown were gath- 
ered at its doors. Some of the neighbors were converted, 
as the following story will show. Jerry in his record says : 

" The converts were not from among our neighbors, but 
were mostly visitors, wanderers, sailors, etc. One or two 
neighbors from across the street finally ventured to drop 
in. One case is well worth repeating. One night a beauti- 
ful little child about five years old came to the door. She 
was a lovely little thing, with bright blue eyes and long 
golden curls — a perfect little picture, notwithstanding the 
poor care she had received. 

'' She turned to the man at the door, and asked, ' Say, 
Mister, won't you please let me in ? I'll be good if you will.' 
' Oh no,' he said, looking down at the little waif ; * you 
couldn't behave.' ' Yes I will ; I'll be awful good, 'cos I 
want to hear the singing.' He yielded to her entreaties, 
and she went in, and folding her little hands on her lap sat 
as quiet as a mouse until meeting closed. 

" The next evening she came again, leading by the hand 
another little girl, younger than herself, but looking very 
much like her. She again asked permission to go in, and 
having referred to her good behavior the previous night, it 
was granted. They walked deliberately up to the very 
front seat, and lifting her little sister well up on the bench, 
Mollie sat down beside her, and closely watched everything 



An Iiilmman Mother. 95 

that was said or done. They behaved beautifully, and at 
the close of the meeting my wife kissed them both, and 
then gave them a chunk of cake each, and they ran out 
happy enough. This happened several nights, and they 
always got their kiss and cake. 

"One night during the meeting the mother of the little 
girls came to the door drunk, and asked if the children 
were there. The man replied he thought they were, when 
she said, ' I'll be thankful to ye. Mister, if ye'U go in and 
kick them two children out.' * We don't do things that way 
here,' said the man ; when she called ' Mollie, Mollie 
Rollins, come out here ! ' 

'' Poor little Mollie turned pale and trembled, and looked 
at me with such a frightened look, like a scared bird. The 
mother screamed out her name again, and added, * I'll give 
it to you, going in there with those black Protestants, you 
little wretch ; ' and as poor Mollie came out, dragging her 
little sister after her, the drunken mother caught her by the 
beautiful curly hair, and flung her clear off the ground. 
' I'll kill you if you go in there again,' she screamed. 
* Do they give you any beer in there, say ? ' The poor 
little thing looked up, though the tears were in her eyes, 
and said: *0 mamma, ain't you 'awful! they don't drink 
any beer in there, and they don't get drunk neither !' The 
next night, just as service commenced, in walked MoUie and 
Jennie again. 'Ain't you afraid your mother will kill you?* 
we asked. ' Oh no,' she answered quickly, as she turned her 
blue eyes up to my face ; ' I ain't afraid. I like the singing.* 
Everybody around the Mission loved those darlings, and 
was pleased to have them there. We missed them for two 
or three evenins[;s, and afterwards learned the father had 
returned from a sea-voyage. The husband and wife both 



96 Sheltering the Homeless. 

went on a terrible spree with the money he brought, until 
finally he brutally turned the mother and little ones out of 
the house into the cold October night-air. 

" That night, about eleven o'clock, Mrs. McAuley heard 
her name called. She listened a moment, and recognized 
Mollie's voice calling from the street, * Mrs. McAuley, O Mrs. 
McAuley, come down. I want to tell you something.' After 
a minute the little voice rang out again : * Mrs. McAuley, O 
Mrs. McAuley.' On going down, my wife learned that the 
father had put them out, and they had been on the roof. As 
the wind blew cold, the little one said to her mother, ' Mam- 
ma, I know a place where the wind won't blow, and where 
we won't be afraid.' 'Where's that?' asked her mother. 
* Over in the Mission,' said the child. My wife came up- 
stairs, saying to me, ' Mrs. Rollins is there with her children. 
I have let them in ; I believe it may be the salvation of that 
woman's soul.' We took them up-stairs, where we had the 
only accommodation the old Mission-house afforded. It 
was a rickety affair, but was the best we could do. There 
was a straw tick there, and a few old quilts, and as they 
turned in Mollie looks up to her mother and says, ' Thank 
God, mother, we have a good bed to-night' 

" In the morning we gave them their breakfast the same as 
we had ourselves, and sat with them at table. We never 
mentioned anything to the mother about her conduct, but 
treated them kindly, and after breakfast they left. This 
was the first step towards reaching that poor woman, and it 
turned out that the little acts of kindness were not lost. 

" The man having spent his money, went off to sea again, 
but left the family his advance-money, and this was the 
mother's opportunity for another big spree, and she made 
the most of it. She spread it everywhere, and soon the 



Won by Kindness. 97 

money was gone. But rum must be had, and one thing 
after another went to the pawn-shop, till there was nothing 
left that would bring a penny. The poor children were 
dirty and unwashed, and their hair was all matted and 
tangled, and they looked fearful. They came in one day, 
their lips blue with the cold. My wife warmed them and 
then washed them, combed out their hair, and curled it 
beautifully over their foreheads. She then begged two 
little dresses from a friend who had some small girls ; the 
dresses were somewhat worn, but were neat and clean, and 
the dear little things were happy as larks. When they 
went over where their mother was drinking, she hardly 
recognized them. ' Oh,' said she, * what happened you ? 
Who did that? ' The rum-seller's wife remarked, ' Why, I'd 
never known them!' 'Nor I,' said the mother; * I hardly 
knew them myself ; well, you look good, anyhow.' This 
was the second blow on that hard heart. 

'' Shortly after this, the long spree began to tell on Mrs. 
Rollins, and she was taken sick, and after suffering awhile, 
she sent Mollie over after my wife. This being the first 
move towards us she had ever made, we hailed it with 
joy. My wife went as requested, accompanied by a 
friend, and oh, what a miserable sight met their eyes ! 
The room robbed of everything movable but the remains 
of a bed, fragments of broken dishes scattered all around 
the dirty floor, the room cheerless, fireless, comfortless. 
The dishes that were not broken were dirty and piled 
every way, while the stench of the neglected room was 
fearful. They found her stretched with the horrors 
(delirium tremens) and without saying much to her, 
straightened up the room, made a fire after getting some 
coal, and then the friend went home and brought over a big 



98 Bearing the Cross. 

pitcher of good strong hot tea, and told her to drink it, 
which she did in a hurry. This helped her somewhat, and 
they talked to her about her condition, and pointed her to 
the Lamb of God for help, and prayed with her. 

"These acts of kindness were the hardest blow of all to 
her prejudices, and she broke down and said, ' If ever I get 
well of this spell I'm going to come over, Mrs. McAuley, 
and see you at the Mission.' 

" She got well, and one night she came into the Mission 
during the meeting. We were singing the * Stone rolled 
away,' when she screamed right out, and starting from her 
seat, ran through the kitchen, thinking to get out that way. 
My wife followed quickly and caught her, and then kneel- 
ing down beside her, prayed earnestly with the poor sob- 
bing creature. She found the Lord's help, and He so 
sweetly saved her, that it was apparent to all. 

'' At first she used to put an old shawl around her head and 
draw it well over her face, and then go around the block 
before entering the Mission, to keep the neighbors from 
recognizing her ; but afterwards she would walk straight 
across the street to and from her home, singing the 
' Stone rolled away.' 

" She was bitterly persecuted, because she was a turncoat 
as they termed it. Her door was broken in, slops were 
thrown over her, and they even caught the poor little 
children and beat them, hoping to enrage her, and thus 
make her return to drink again. 

" The errors of her past life began to tell on her, and she 
became very ill with consumption. The people she had 
spent all her money with would not do anything for her, and 
we took her to Dr. Cullis' Home for Consumptives in Boston. 
We went with her, and left her in the good doctor's care. She 



A Funeral at the Mission. 99 

grew gradually worse, until almost at death's door. She had 
a dream or vision one day, in which she thought every one 
had forsaken her: even we had ceased to love her, and God 
had forgotten her, but suddenly she heard a voice, ' I 
won't leave you. I'll be with you all the time.' And she 
was encouraged. She also thought that Mrs. McAuley 
stood by her bedside, and she felt relieved. Dr. C. wrote 
us to come on if we wanted to see her alive, and we went 
immediately to Boston. 

" My wife walked in and stood by the bed, and when the 
poor invalid opened her eyes she smiled faintly, and said, 
'That is just where I saw you stand,' and she reached up 
and clasped her poor bony arms around my wife's neck, and 
oh! such a scene I never witnessed before. I could not 
stand it, and went out of the room and let them sob away ; 
but I heard her murmur, ' Oh how I love you both ! I 'love 
you better than my own children.' This more than paid 
us for all our efforts. The next day she passed over in the 
triumphs of faith and redeeming love. Before she died she 
expressed a desire to visit that place in Water Street 
where God spoke peace to her soul, and added, '■'• Dead 
or alive, I want to be under that blessed roof once more." 
In accordance with this wish, her body was brought on to 
the Mission for burial. 

" There was a very large turnout to the funeral services, 
and a stranger gathering never was seen. There were pres- 
ent many ladies and gentlemen from the first circles of so- 
ciety, and there were several of Mrs. Rollins' old comrades, 
some of them dragging their children with them to get a last 
look at the face of their late acquaintance. Many of those 
parents were confirmed drunkards of the lowest type, and had 
entered this Mission for the first time in their lives ; yet all 
this seemed forgotten in the presence of the dead." 



loo The Queen of Frauds, 



CHAPTER IX. 

EVIL SCHEMES FRUSTRATED. 

" Their hearts shall not be moved 

Who in the Lord confide ; 
But firm as Zion's hill, 

They ever shall abide ; 
As mountains shield Jerusalem, 
The Lord shall be a shield to them." 

While possessed of a native shrewdness which, sanctified 
as it was, helped him much in his work, Jerry did not for- 
get to seek for wisdom from on high. But for this he 
would no doubt have been deceived to his cost again and 
again. As it was, the Lord cared for his servant, and the 
well-planned devices of the enemy were constantly frustrated. 
One or two cases Jerry thought worthy of record, and they 
are appended. 

"We have met a great many frauds while engaged in this 
work, but the greatest of all — the very Queen of frauds — 
appeared in our history one time, and I have no doubt if the 
Lord himself had not overthrown her designs a terrible re- 
proach would have been put upon both my wife and me, and 
we might have been entirely ruined and our work broken up. 

'' We were down at Asbury Park for a few days' rest when 
this creature came upon the stage of action. Brother and 
Sister S. had been to their regular services at the John Street 
Church, and were on their way home to Williamsburg, when 
they thought they would stop into the Mission for a few 



A Plausible Story, loi 

minutes, inquire after our health, and get a drink of ice- 
water or lemonade. They had talked awhile with the jani- 
tor, and were just going away, it being after ten o'clock, 
when there was a sudden rap at the outside door. When 
the janitor opened it he found a fine-looking young woman 
standing there. He let her in, and then the visitors lis- 
tened to her story. 

"■ The girl stated that she was homeless and friendless, and 
being at a loss where to go had stepped up to a policeman, 
a few moments before knocking at our door, and inquired 
of him where she could find a respectable night's lodging. 
He did not treat her properly, she said, and turning from 
him she raised her eyes and saw the Mission. She knew 
she would be safe with Christian people, and so without 
hesitation knocked at the door. 

*' Her previous history was a sad one, and our friends 
listened to it with the deepest interest and sympathy. Her 
father, she said, had been wealthy up to a short time before 
his death, and when he died he left her $3700 in care of 
her brother, who was older than she was. The brother 
became intimate with the son of a rich gentleman where he 
boarded, who was a fast young man and soon led him into 
dissipation. His constitution, not strong at best, gave 
way under his excesses, and he went into hasty consump- 
tion, and soon died. Just before his death he gave his 
sister's money to this young associate to turn over to her. 
The man promised faithfully to carry out the dying request 
of his late comrade, but as soon as the latter was laid in his 
grave he went on a long spree, and kept it up until the 
money was all gone, his own health broken, and he also 
brought to death's door. 

"When he died all hope of ever getting her money van- 



102 Suspicions Aroused, 

ished, as the father refused to be held for the debt. In this 
condition she wandered around until she knocked at the 
Mission door for protection. Mr. and Mrs. S. were greatly 
interested in her story, and when she concluded they pro- 
ceeded to find a place where she could stay until morning, 
as it would not do, on account of the speech of the people, 
to leave her there alone with the janitor for the remainder 
of the night. 

" After a great deal of trouble they found accommodations 
for her and went home. She paid her own bills, and after- 
wards got a boarding-place in Monroe Street, and came to 
the meetings every night. 

"We came home about this time, and supposing, as a mat- 
ter of course, they had investigated the matter, we took her 
into our confidence and did all we could for her. 

*' My wife felt a little uneasy sometimes about Jessie, as 
she called herself, and then blaming herself for her sus- 
piciousness, treated her more kindly than before. 

" My eyes began to be opened after a while by some of her 
actions when off her guard. Once when my wife and I 
were talking about coming to Thirty-second Street to open 
the Cremorne Mission, the girl overheard us, and exclaimed, 
without thinking, * Oh, good ! I'm glad of it ; I'm well ac- 
quainted up there around the Cremorne Gar ' She 

caught herself suddenly, but her prudence came too late. 
I was looking her square in the eyes, and saw her confusion 
like a flash. I said nothing, however, until she left the 
room, when I turned to my wife and remarked, ' She is 
from that neighborhood after all.' This put us on our 
guard, but we feared to do her injustice or hurt her feelings 
by showing any suspicions until we were certain that she 
was playing a game. 



Delusive Promises. 103 

" She came running in one day shortly after, and appeared 
in great glee as she exclaimed, ' Oh, good news ! good 
news! I've got word from that father, and he is going to 
pay me back, with interest, the full amount his son squan- 
dered for me ! I'll tell you what I'll do,' she continued 
excitedly, * I'll give it all to you to start that mission up in 
Thirty-second Street. Won't that be grand ? ' I heard her 
words, saw her earnest and apparently honest manner, and 
she seemed so enthusiastic and generous, I began to believe 
in her again, and to scold myself for my suspicions. Of 
course I was glad to hear her offer of the money, for I was 
then very much exercised about how I was to get the 
means to open the expected mission up-town. I intended 
to put a mortgage on a little property I owned, and put in 
all my own available cash, with what I could raise in other 
ways ; but all this would be far too little for even a fair 
start. Here, thought I, is the whole thing all worked out for 
us ! I now proposed to myself to accept her offer, and 
secure her by the proposed lien on my property until the 
first anniversary, when it would be an easy matter to return 
her the money again with interest. The skies looked ail 
bright again for my proposed Thirty-second Street Mission. 

'' ' When will you go,' I asked her after a while, * to 
receive the money? ' 

" * Oh,' she replied, * in about three weeks from to-day I 
will take you and Mrs. McAuley with me, and we will go 

over and get it, bring it to Mr. H , and take a receipt 

for it. We can then draw it as we want to.' After the 
three weeks had gone by, and she made no move to go 
after it, I asked the reason, and she answered, ' Oh, I've 
concluded to get it expressed to my boarding house, and 
then take it to the banker's.' I thought it strange that 



I04 A Well-laid Plot, 

she would have so large an amount sent to a boarding- 
house, but held my tongue, determined to hide my sus- 
picions until the proper time. Shortly afterwards came the 
closing of the plot. 

'' She came in one evening, and told us the money had 
been sent over as proposed, and was now at the house in 
Monroe Street, all done up in envelopes. 'All right,' I 
answered ; * as soon as meeting is over we will go down 
and get it.' 

" The meeting went on as usual, and after it was over we 
started out with her to bring home the three or four thou- 
sand dollars! 

'' We went together to the house, and leaving us standing 
on the sidewalk she went into the house to get the money. 
\ felt a misgiving that she would not come out again, or 
that we were in some way having a job put up on us, and 
turning to my wife, as the front door closed upon our 
guide, I said, * There she goes, and we will see her no 
more.' * Yes, we will see her again,' was the positive 
reply ; and sure enough, in a little while out came the 
lady with the packages of envelopes ! 

" ' Have you got it ? ' I asked, when she reached the pave- 
ment. 

" * Yes ; it's here all right,' she replied. ' Here it is,' 
(handing a package to my wife). * It's all done up correct, 
and in good shape.' 

"■ ' All right,' I answered, pushing the package back into 
her hands. 'You keep it, and walk ahead with Mrs. 
McAuley, and I'll follow close behind and protect you if 
needed.* The fact that she wanted one of us to carry the 
valuable package struck me as rather strange, and I was 
determined to be on the look-out for any plot that might 



The Plot Developed. 165 

have been cooked up to get us into trouble or entrap us, 
and then say we had appropriated the money. So, satisfying 
myself that my revolver was all right, in good condition, 
and handy if needed, I followed them slowly, watching 
carefully every dark alley and doorway, and every sharp cor- 
ner, thinking that at any minute some fellow might spring 
suddenly upon us as we passed through that dangerous 
locality. The whole thing seemed so odd, that I felt pretty 
sure there was to be some strange ending to it all, for the 
idea had grown upon me that there was some deep-laid plot 
against us to injure our work, and I was determined not to 
be caught napping. Whether she was afraid to give the 
signal, seeing we were so fully on our guard, or not, I can't 
say, but anyway there was no attempt at harming us, and 
we reached the Mission in safety. Calling in one other as a 
witness, I turned to the girl and said : 

'' ' Now, Jessie, I want you to stand where you are and 
open those packages, and show us the money before this 
witness.' 

'' * Oh, it's all here ! ' she replied ; and then fumbling over 
the envelopes as if examining their contents, she continued: 
' Yes, it's all right — in checks — and you take it just as it is. 
We won't count it now, it is so late and we're all so tired. 
We can all come together the first thing in the morning, 
and count it out all right.' 

*' * Pull them out, and count them now, before we go to bed,* 
I exclaimed, as I saw like a flash of lightning through the 
whole dodge. * You can't leave that package in our care 
and then ruin us by swearing in the morning that we stole 
the money out during the night. Open them ! quick! ' 

'' She trembled like a leaf, and the packages on being 
opened were found to have 7iothing in them ! 



io6 The Exposure, 

"■ ' Who put you up to that infernal trick ? ' I said to her 
sternly as I fixed my eyes upon her face. * Come, out with 
it ; whose plan is it ? Everything else having failed, this 
was the last hope, was it ? ' 

*' She refused to answer, however ; nor could we ever learn 
positively who was at the bottom of it. I shall always be- 
lieve, however, that it was a put-up job. Thus did the 
dear Lord interfere again to save us from the plots of our 
unprincipled enemies, as He had done before and has so 
many times since. 

'' The girl, seeing she was caught beyond escape, got 
awfully scared at the prospect of arrest and imprisonment, 
and broke down, sobbing and crying like a child. She made 
some acknowledgments, but refused to give any names. 
She wept bitterly ; and what do you suppose we did then ? 
Knelt right down there and prayed for her^ with our own 
hearts all melted up with gratitude to God for the wonder- 
ful deliverance He had just wrought out for us, and cared 
for her until she could get ready to leave." 

Those who knew Jerry best will recognize him readily in 
the following incident, given in his words : 

*'A fellow came in one day shaking all over as if he had 
the palsy. He trembled like a leaf from head to foot. 

*' 'What's the matter?' said I. 

'' ' Oh, the Lord sent me here ? * 

" ' I don't know whether He did or not,' I returned ; 
for he looked like a dead beat ; * did no one else send 
you ?' 

'"Yes,' he answered slowly, pulling a dirty crumpled 
paper from his pocket, which he had probably carried about 
six months. I looked at him sharply, when he exclaimed, 



Not Ready to Die, 107 

* Oh, help me — I've got the horrors — I'm almost dead — do 
help me ! ' 

*' I pitied the poor fellow, so I took him in without further 
questioning, led him up-stairs and put him to bed, called 
a doctor, and did all I could for him. I could not do much 
with him spiritually, for he claimed to be a Christian and 
' all right.' * It is true,' he said, ' I drink a little, but 
they all do that where I came from.' He was taken worse 
one day and was so cramped that he was sure that he 
was going to die right off. ' Oh, oh,' he screamed, ' I'm 
going to die ! ' I knew he wasn't in a very bad way, so con- 
cluded to improve my opportunity. 

" ' Oh, you're all right, you know ; you'll only go to heaven 
any way ! ' 

" * Oh, but I can't die so.' 

"'Oh, yes,' I continued, 'you can; it isn't hard for a 
Christian to die, you know ! ' 

"*0h, oh! help me ! I'm dying!' 

" 'Why, you ought to be happy; why don't you sing?* 

'" Oh ! oh ! ' 

" ' It's glorious, ain't it, to be a Christian ? ' 

"'Oh! oh!' 

" ' Why, my friend, you ain't scared, are you ? ' And so I 
talked with him in this way until he became ashamed, and 
then I said to him soberly, ' Now, my friend, you ought to 
get right with God. Just see how frightened you were 
when the first pain touched you. Oh, why don't you get 
saved?' I failed to get him out clear, though he claimed 
to be grateful, and made great promises of help to the Mis- 
sion when he got well. One day he left, and we supposed 
he had gone for good, when a few days afterwards in he 



io8 An Impost 07\ 

walked with a bundle of dirty clothes under his arm. When 
1 approached him he said : 

" ' Jerry, the Lord sent me to you to have these clothes 
washed ! ' 

'* ' Did he ?' said I. * Well, the Lord sent me to fire you 
out ; ' and out he went like a rocket — dirty clothes and all." 



The Cremorne Mission, 109 



CHAPTER X. 

THE CREMORNE MISSION. 

" E'er since, by faith, I saw the stream 
Thy bleeding wounds supply, 
Redeeming love has been my theme, 
And shall be till I die." 

Thus far we have spoken only of Jerry's labors in the 
Water Street Mission. For over two years previous to 
his death he carried on a similar work in the Cremorne 
Mission at 104 West Thirty-second Street. Of the origin 
of that work he once said to a reporter : 

** Dr. Talmage was the first one that started me to think- 
ing about it. That was over two years ago. Dr. Talmage 
had been around the dives and seen what was going on and 
preached about it, you know. I had been around New 
York some, and I thought I knew the worst places in it ; but 
I was mistaken, for I'd never seen anything so bad as this 
neighborhood. The first time I found out what it was 
really like happened this way : There was a fellow they 
called Happy Joe came up one night and got a little full, 
and began to sing a hymn he'd heard down at our Water 
Street place ; and at last he said, ' Let's have a Jerry 
McAuley prayer-meeting, right here ! ' Well, the girls 
jumped at the idea, and he took me off, and made fun of 
the whole thing. Well, sir, that blaspheming rascal was 
the cause of my coming here ! Those girls were so inter- 



no Seeking the Lord's Way. 

ested from his description that two of them came down to 
Water Street in a carriage to our meetings, and then often 
came. One of them came to me afterwards and wanted 
me to help find her sister, who had got into some bad place 
up-town, she was afraid. Mrs. McAuley and I got inter- 
ested, and we came up to look for the girl's sister. We 
started in at Bleecker Street, took in ' The ' Allen's, Harry 
Hill's, ' Wes ' Allen's, and all the rest there, and came up 
and went to nearly all the Sixth Avenue dives. Before we 
got through I made up my mind that this was a worse 
place than Water Street, and resolved, if the Lord would 
help me, to start a Mission up here. I finally fixed on this 
place, because it was about the worst I could find." 

Mrs. McAuley says : '' We felt that our work in Water 
Street was done, and the time had come when we ought to 
make a change. After this visit it seemed to us that the 
cry went up to heaven for a mission here, that some of the 
hundreds of young men and women frequenting these dens 
and dives might be saved. We went home and prayed God 
if he wanted us up here to open the way ; and if he didn't 
want us here to put up a barrier so high we couldn't climb over 
it. After many prayers and tears and with much fear and 
trembling, we found a place. Then we asked God if he 
wished us to come, to send the means that day. The answer 
came, and soon we had $9000. Then a number of Christian 
gentlemen were invited to become trustees, and the place 
was fitted up and the work commenced." 

In June, 1883, Jerry felt led to commence the publication 
of a journal which he named y^^'rj McAuley s Newspaper, 
and which is still issued every other Thursday. It contains 
in its columns accounts of the Cremorne and other Mission 
meetings in New York, with the testimonies of converts, 




CREMORNE McAULEY MISSION, 
104 West 32d Street, near Sixth Avenue. New York. 



Jerry McAtiley s Testimonies. 1 1 1 

just as they are uttered in the meetings. From among 
these we have culled a handful of Jerry's own testimonies. 
It is to be regretted that more of them have not been re- 
corded. Those of them in print we give without comment. 



MISTAKEN PROPHETS. 

I never undertook anything, but the prophets said, 
" Jerry, you've made a mistake." When I started the Water 
Street Mission, none of these wise fellows would come near 
me for a while. One man said : " Well, if it's a success, I'll 
give you $25." "Yes," I thought; ''//*;" and ^/they were all 
like you it could not be a success." When I came up-town 
they said again, " Now Jerry has made the mistake of his 
life." Even some of the trustees objected, and said, " Water 
Street Mission will go down if Jerry leaves," — as if Jerry 
McAuley was anything, or that God couldn't do without 
me. Not so. This Mission would just run on the same if 
I should die to-morrow morning. Why if any of you has 
the money I'll go and start a Mission right away at a place 
over here called " Hell's Kitchen," and another somewhere 
else, and they would all be full, and God would save souls. 
Now you want to tell the story just as it is — if God has 
taken you out of a dirty hole, say so. 



COMMENCING THE WATER-STREET WORK. 

When I first went into a meeting it was during the John 
Allen excitement. They asked whoever wanted prayers to 
stand up. " Well," thinks I, *' them fellows can't hurt me 
praying for me;" so I stood up, and here I am to-day. I 
didn't go off to Harlem then, or some other place where no 
one knew me, to start a Mission and work for God, but I 



1 1 2 The Beginning in Water Street. 

went right to work where I was well known. I went to a cer- 
tain minister, and he said : 

" Why, you are wild, Jerry, to try and start a Mission 
down there. Why, they'll kill you the first thing, and fire 
you and the old benches out doors together." 

'VWell," I replied, "let them! I've taken and given a 
good many hard knocks for the devil, and I think I can 
stand and take a few for the dear Lord Jesus ; so I shall 
start right there where I am most needed, and where no 
one else wants to go." 

'•' Well, go on then, if you must, and here is five dollars 
for you anyway, and God bless you." 

And we went to work. I got five or six of us up in 
one corner of that old house, and we roared away on 
" Rock of Ages," and " There is a fountain filled with 
blood ;" that's all we knew. We didn't know high metre 
from low metre, but we went at it with all our might, for 
we meant it. No one came in for quite a while, when finally 
I discovered the reason : the old man I had at the door 
wouldn't let any one in. He had the door locked, and kept 
them all out. He wasn't going to let any of those bad 
characters in to disturb our meeting — not he. We had some 
strange work, but see the results. The Water Street Mis- 
sion is alive to-day, with a number of branches in this coun- 
try and in England. The Cremorne Mission stands to-day 
as a branch of the old Water Street, and there are several 
branches from this one already. 



CONFESSING FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. 

There are a great many here to-night whom the Lord has 
made happy. Many more have happy homes who at one 



The Story to Tell, 113 

time had no home at all. We owe a great debt of grati- 
tude. Just see what comforts I am surrounded with ! See 
my happy/comfortable home, see all the dear kind friends 
I have now ; yet this was not always so. I once lived a 
crooked life, I am ashamed to say so, but for Jesus' sake I 
confess it. It serves to keep me humble to refer to what I 
was. It keeps pride down and crucifies the flesh. If we 
humble ourselves the Lord says He will lift us up ; but if 
we exalt ourselves He will cast us down. If we lift our- 
selves up we will soon fall. Now, let each of you be 
prompt to testify for God to the things you know of his 
dealings with your souls. 



THE STORY TO TELL. 

Did you ever read in the Bible about that fellow in the 
tombs? He tore all his clothes off and broke his chains, and 
nobody could help him. But Jesus came along and saved 
him, and put a new suit of clothes on him, shoes and all-^ 
no second-handed things ; but what did the fellow do ? 
Why, I expect he straightened up his coat collar and put 
on a white choker and said, "Well, I guess. Lord, I'll go 
along with you and have a good easy time, and folks will 
think I'm respectable !" But Jesus said to him, '' Go back 
among the people that knew what a miserable old tramp you 
were, and tell them what wonderful things God has done for 
you." And I can imagine I see him go back and get up on 
an old barrel, and tell the people what a miserable wretch 
he was until Christ found him. 

POWER OF TESTIMONY. 

Some folks get wonderful pretty and precise, and afraid 
to tell what God has done for them ; and some poor listen- 



114 Saved throuc^h Testimony. 

ing soul, hearing these nice kid-gloved sinners talk, says to 
himself as he starts to go out, '* They are a lot of pretty 
cranks, with their soft talk," when just then some hon- 
est soul will get up and say, '' I was a hard case ;" then the 
poor fellow going out stops and listens to catch every word ; 
and as the man goes on to tell his story, the other sits 
down interested, gets all broken up, as he thinks, "That's 
just where I am to-night ;" and soon the tears begin to run 
down his cheeks, and the next thing he is forward for 
prayers, then takes his place in the congregation to tell the 
old, old story, so new to him. Love testimony? [he contin- 
ued.] I guess I do. That man there [pointing to Orville 
Gardner] came to prison where I was under sentence of 
fifteen years, and told how God saved him. I knew what 
he was before, and I got all broken up, and went back to 
my cell, got on my knees, and Christ saved me. Always 
give your testimony just as it is. 



NO HALF-HEARTED RELIGION. 

God has saved me. I was almost a tramp ; but see the 
difference to-night. He has taken the appetite for that 
frightful rum away. I remember living in a basement over 
in Brooklyn without even a chair or a bed in it ; in fact, we 
didn't have anything : yet He has taken us up, washed us, 
and made us clean in His own blood. A half-hearted re- 
ligion won't do for me. I want something more solid, and 
this religion of Jesus Christ saves and keeps me. 



A TEST THAT TOLD. 



When I was in the old way, I remember one night steal- 
ing $100 worth of sugar from a schooner. After my con- 



A Test that Told, ' 115 

version, one evening I was in Dover Street Mission, when 
who should come in but the captain of the schooner. He saw 
me, and asked those around '' what they were doing with 
Jerry McAuIey there ?" They told him Jerry was converted, 
when he said, '' he would rather believe the Devil was con- 
verted than McAuley." 

They called me down to him, and the captain said, " Do 
you know me?" I said, " I think I've seen you somewhere." 
The captain replied, " I think you have. Do you remember 
the sugar you beat me out of?" "I really don't know," I 
said : ^' I've beat so many." He told me the circumstances ; 
and then I said, " Well, I've been converted, and to prove it 
to you I will give you the $100." But he said he had beaten 
the owners and I had beaten him, and so we would call it 
square. I tell you, my friends, it pays to serve the Lord. 
I hope some poor soul may to-night conclude to be honest 
with himself and with God. Come on the Lord's side 
to-night. 



FORGIVEN MOST, PRAISE MOST. 

Those of us whom God has taken out of the dirty hole 
ought to be always telling of his goodness. It hurts me 
when God's people act as if they were ashamed to speak for 
him. I am no hair-splitter, and what God says to me I be- 
lieve because he says it. You heard about the fellow who 
was describing a little fly to another friend, and he talked 
about the various parts of the fly, and so on, and wondered 
how they could have been produced, and " look," says he, 
" at this tiny foot. How could it ever have been made ?" 
" Oh don't bother me," said the other. '' God said. Let 
there be flies, and there was flies, and I know there is plenty 



1 1 6 Slack Christians, 

of them, and that is enough for me." Some people are hair- 
spHtters. "■ If I get religion, how will so and so come out ?" 
Well, let God take care of that, and do you do your duty. 
He saved me several years ago, and he has kept me by sim- 
ply trusting in him. 



SLACK KIND OF CHRISTIANS. 
I was thinking of what that lady who is seated over 
there said, when testifying to-night, about moderate-drinking 
and prohibition. It is a terrible thing to profess to be a 
Christian and still drink rum. Why don't all the preachers 
preach radical temperance ? Shall I tell " you ? Because 
some of them dabble in the accursed stuff themselves ! 
They sip it, and a few of them defend its use as a beverage (?), 
and call me a *' lunkhead " and an " ignoramus" and ** a poor, 
uneducated fanatic." Well, I'm willing to be called a fana- 
tic in this matter, and I don't deny I am " uneducated " and 
an " ignoramus." I never pretended to be anything else ; but 
this I know — souls do get saved here, and poor drunkards give 
up their drink and become happy, sober men, husbands, and 
fathers. Moody says, " God don't choose men according to 
their abilities, but chooses the man or woman next to Him ; 
that is, the one who lives nearest to Him." Some folks 
don't know what it is to live near the Lord. They have no 
moral backbone, no strength of character, nothing in them 
for good or evil, and never will have. You ask them why 
they don't come to meeting, and they'll say, " Oh, it's too 
crowded up there at McAuley's," or ** It's too hot up there at 
the Mission." I'd say to them, '' I'm thinking you'll get a 
hotter place if you don't stir yourselves — a place you won't 
get out of easy, either." Here are ungodly men and women 
sweltering away every night, and these dainty professors think 



The Wonderful Difference, 117 

it's too riot. I wonder if the dear Jesus ever complained of it 
being too hot to help souls ? These are the kind that won't 
take a stand for temperance or anything else. I don't see 
how you can put wine on your tables, or drink it yourselves, 
right in the presence of your children. May God help you 
to-night to see these things as they are ! How would you 
like to give me a bottle of wine and see me rolling in the 
gutter, cursing and blaspheming the name of God instead of 
praying? Yet you are doing it to others who might be 
as useful. Young converts start well : God saves them from 
drink, and their homes brighten up ; they get good employ- 
ment, and begin to move in society. Again, they see your 
so-called moderation, and then say, *' He is a good Christian 
man, and it can't be so wrong after all to use it in modera- 
tio7i /" and he tastes, drinks, falls, and dies ! Who's to blame ? 
I know of an old woman down-town who no doubt com- 
menced as a " moderate drinker," but when I saw her she 
was such a helpless sot that she soon after died through rum. 



THE GREAT CHANGE. 

I am glad the Lord has permitted me to live and to 
meet the friends of other years here to-day. I met Mr. 

H coming out of the bank once with $150,000 in his 

hand ; as he came out he took my arm, and I told him I'd 
have cut his head off once for half that amount. And I 
would ; but see the change now. Here I am, with as good 
a suit of clothes on as he has ! He carries a good watch, 
and, see there [pulling out his timepiece], so do I ! I 
once couldn't sport a wooden watch. I speak this way, 
just to show what the gospel can do for a man if he will 
only be honest, and let God have his way. Why, I used to 
sleep on the dock, with a stringpiece for my pillow ! 



1 1 8 Soul Seeking, 

HE WAS CALLED A TURNCOAT. 

The testimonies of this evening, [he said, huskily] will 
tell in eternity. I am sick to-night, and ought to be up- 
stairs, but I desire to see souls saved. I was taken sick 
first in Water Street, and grew worse while on my knees 
with the poor sinners crying for mercy, but would not stop 
until I got through. Then I crawled up-stairs on my hands 
and knees. That was my first attack of pneumonia. When 
Fm to die, and it may not be long, I want to die on my knees, 
praying for lost souls. I don't care how you bury me — any 
old box will do. I don't want any money spent on flowers for 
me. There are small fortunes spent on flowers at some funer- 
als, and I think it would be better to give it to the poor. I 
would rather some poor soul that I was the means of 
leading to the Lord would put one little rose on my grave 
than have the wealth of a millionaire.* 

My testimony to-night is, the Lord picked me up when 
I was a dirty tramp, without a friend or cent in the world. 
The Roman Catholic folks, who heard of my conversion, 
called me a ''turncoat ;" but I had no coat to turn — nothing 
but an old red shirt — when I came to Jesus. 



HIS METHODS NOT APPRECIATED. 

When I was first converted, I used to get up at every 
chance I got and tell the people I had been an old 
drunkard, and one of the trustees of the church didn't like 
it ; and one said he wished I would not tell the people 
what I was. 

* In view of Jerry's wish, here recorded, the incident mentioned at the 
close of Chapter XII. is peculiarly interesting. 



Taking up the Cross. 1 19 

We did not know how to put on airs, but went right in 
for solid work. We would go into the congregation, and 
talk to the people, and lead them to the altar. 

One night my wife got a young lady to come, and we 
knelt down beside her to help her to the Lord ; several of 
the pillars were sitting quietly on the platform doing 
nothing, and one of them, a " big gun," said sneeringly, 
" Jerry and his wife will talk that girl to death." Wife 
heard it and arose and took her seat, but I didn't hear a 
word ; and 'twas well I didn't : just as wife got up, the 
Lord wonderfully saved that girl. Oh, how happy she was ! 
It was a good thing we did run the risk of talking her to 
death, for she died shortly afterward, and went over in the 
triumphs of faith, and is now " safe in the arms of Jesus," 



TAKING UP THE CROSS. 

I hope all the converts will feel the responsibility that 
rests on them to-night. If you feel it's too heavy a cross 
for you to bear, you ought to ask God to take it away. I 
used to think it was a terrible thing to talk in meeting and 
tell what God had done for my soul. At first when I used 
to get up there would come a great lump in my throat that 
nearly choked me, but I would jump up and hang on to the 
seat, and say " I love Jesus," and flop down as if I was shot. 
I always felt better for it. Let every one improve the 
time to-night. 



1 20 Endui'ing the Shame, 



CHAPTER XI. 

ANOTHER CHAPTER OF TESTIMONIES. 

*' Saved by grace, oh, blessed tidings, 
Wonderful His love to show, 
Jesus died to bring salvation 
To the perishing below. 

Saved by grace, through Jesu-s' blood 
Made an heir and child of God !" 

NOTHING TO BOAST OF. 

We, the converts especially, are responsible for this 
meeting. It depends on us whether it proves a success or 
failure. If we keep still, nothing can be done ; but if we do 
our duty promptly and keep in the Spirit — speaking and 
singing as God wants us to — this meeting will be a success. 
Most certainly is this true of those of us whom God has 
taken out of the lowest depths. Some seem to think if a 
man gets up and tells how low he was, " a poor forsaken 
drunkard," '' a miserable thief," etc., that he is boasting of 
his shame. I tell it here often, and yet it hurts me every 
time ; hurts me right here [he continued, pointing to his 
heart], and I can't get rid of it ; it may be pride, but 
whatever you may call it, it's there ! For Jesus' sake and 
for his glory I'll endure the shame, and tell plainly what he 
has done for my soul. 

Now I want you all to testify and tell what God has 
done for you, and be as short as you can. You have, 



The Father s Love, 121 

probably, all heard about the three men with the pot of 
stir-about, haven't you ? Three hungry men had a pot of 
stir-about set before them, but had only one spoon, and the 
stirrabout being too hot to use their hands, one was to use 
the spoon and then pass it to the second, and so on. Now 
what would you think if one fellow took the spoon and 
kept it all the time and let the others starve ? Well, pass 
around the spoon. The meeting is open now for testi- 
mony. Don't you see it ? 

THE PRODIGAL SON. 

I read that scripture about the Prodigal Son a long time 
ago, and I thought I was like one of those characters, and 
I thought the other didn't have much religion either ! 
Why, he got mad when the poor wanderer came home, and 
then went off growling and grumbling. He was one of 
those nice, goodish boys who brag about always staying at 
home and taking care of everything — very nice, precise 
folks — kid-glove sinners ; but they are usually like this 
fellow — not half as good as they think themselves to be : 
for here is your never-did-wrong chap growling and getting 
mad at his poor old father, and it don't say the Prodigal 
ever did that ! What did he growl about ? Why, because 
the father loved his own child, and was glad to see him 
coming home after staying away so long — was glad to see 
him even though he was in rags, barefooted, and heart-sick ! 
There are some of those steady brothers around yet. Well, 
I praise the dear Lord I am his child to-night. 



NOT- ALL FROTH. 
I am saved from being a drunkard of the worst kind. I 
was a gambler and led a crooked life for years. I was 



122 Soft Words for Sinners. 

brought back to Christ in what was called the " John Allen 
excitement." It may have been a7t excitement^ but it was 
not sXl froth after all, for I was saved there, and I know of 
others in Water Street who were saved, and lived saved 
afterwards. I love God to-night, and I love precious souls. 
I saw a poor man here to-day with the shakes, fighting 
against rum, and I pitied the poor fellow with all my heart. 
I know if he holds on to God in prayer he will come out all 
right. I Ve seen it done often before this. Now let any 
one testify to what they know to be true in this Christian 
life. 



NO REPROACHES FOR SINNERS. 

Jesus saw Zaccheus up in the tree and he knew him, knew 
all about him ; but I notice he didn't call him an extortion- 
ist, or a robber, or any hard name, but merely said, " Come 
down, Zaccheus ; I'm going to take dinner at your house to- 
day!" Didn't accuse him of anything. He never does. 
Never calls those who come to him hard names ! He never 
called one of those poor unfortunate women a " Magdalene" 
once — not once in his whole history. No, sir ! The bigger 
the sinner the more tender Jesus was. He never was harsh, 
only with one class of people — those hypocritical Pharisees ; 
those dead church-members who professed religion, but 
hated Christ, and were only hypocrites. He went for them ; 
and so he ought, and so do I go for them, and I intend to 
keep it hot for them. I praise Jesus for the wonderful 
change he has made in my life in the last few years. It 
would make a wonderful picture to paint me as I was when 
I first came to God, and as I am here to-night. He cleansed 
me inside and out. 



About Confessing, 123 

TWO YEARS OF PRAYER. 

A friend who came to the Mission a skeptic, but was at 
length converted, had given his testimony, when Mr. Mc- 
Auley rose and said : 

** That testimony did my heart good, not simply because 
the speaker referred to me or my prayers, for I don't know 
as they had anything to do with his conversion. It might 
have been in answer to the prayers of some of the godly 
men and women who come here, or it may have been my 
wife's prayers. I cannot tell. We did pray for him, it is 
true ; and to be honest with you, I got discouraged over him. 
I thought him one of the hardest cases that ever came into 
those doors. Think of it, two years praying steadily for 
one man before he yielded ! 

" I can say to-night I am saved by the tender mercy of 
God. I owe all I have to-day to Him — home, friends, and 
everything. I love the Lord to-pight for all he has done 
for me. The meeting is now open; let the time be im- 
proved." 



ABOUT CONFESSING. 
" I don't see," said he, " how any one can get over, under, 
or around that verse about confessing. Some people say * It 
isn't our style to stand up and speak ; we don't do that sort 
of thing in our church.' But there stands the Word of God ; 
and I tell you the testimony of Orville Gardner in State's 
Prison was the means of bringing me to Christ. I had heard 
preaching there for seven or eight years without its having 
any effect upon me at all, because I had no confidence in 
the minister. We must be honest with God. My prayer to 
Him is that He will keep me honest. It's not the way I 
talk before you, but the way I live, that must tell.'* 



1 24 A Lively Imagination, 

FELL DOWN, BUT DID NOT STAY DOWN. 

In the early part of my experience I stumbled a great 
deal, but God saw I was honest, and he helped me over 
the rough places. I will have to acknowledge, for I hate 
hypocrisy and I can't help hating it, and won't be a hypo- 
crite myself, that I became discouraged once or twice in the 
beginning, and let go of God and went back into sin. Yes, 
I went back to the rum and all, but I didn't stay there. 
I came back to the Lord again, and He forgave me ; and, 
seeing I was determined to be honest and true, he blessed 
me again, and has kept me ever since. The trouble with 
some men is they have no backbone, and if everything don't 
go to suit them, they let go, fall, and stay there. If a man 
knocked one of you down would you stay there and let him 
kick the life out of you ? No ! Of course you wouldn't — 
you'd get up and try and save yourself, wouldn't you ? 
Welly that's the way to do with Satan : if he gets you down 
by some foul blow, don't you lie there and let him kick you 
to death, but jump up and strike out for yourself ! 



NOT IMAGINATION. 

We used to have our trials too. The devil would torment 
us, and men and women too, would revile us and call us 
" turncoats," etc. One fellow said to me, '' O Jerry, you 
only imagine yourself into it ; the whole affair is just the 
work of your imagination." 

** Well," I replied, GOOD for imagination !'' 

"Well, that's all it is!" 

" All right," I said, " I used to be just like you are now, 
wretched, ragged, friendless, homeless and unhappy ; now 
see me, I am contented ; have a good conscience and every- 



Jeivels in Strange Surrou7idings. 125 

thing I need. Say ! why don't you imagine yourself into it 
then too? It's so e-a-s-y, and it's certainly better. Just im- 
agine it, why don't you ?" No, my friends, it is not all im- 
agination, but you can all prove it for yourselves if you will, 
to-night. 



NO ONE TOO BAD. 

The Lord is good to me; if I had my just deserts I 
would not be here. I tell you, I believe that if ever God 
left anybody outside the gate it would be me. Since I 
found mercy I know that none can be too bad for the Son 
of God to lift up, and cleanse, and save. Did you ever 
know Jesus to speak a harsh word to a sinner ? The worse 
the sinner, the kinder the Lord Jesus was. 



THE SOUL BENEATH. 

I suppose I was the first one to open a place for tramps, 
and we would have as many as fifty or sixty at once to 
provide lodgings for ; they would be stretched out on the 
benches and then on the floors, until there was not room to 
put your foot down without stepping on them. They were 
a terribly degraded set — hungry, ragged, and alive with 
vermin ; but we looked beyond all that, and saw only souls 
for whom Christ died and whom he desired to save, and 
every now and then God found a real jewel among them. 

When I first started out I had a pretty hard time, and I 
expected I would. Some people seem to think the Lord 
is going to send a convoy of angels and float them off to 
heaven as soon as they are converted ; but that's a mistake. 
It wouldn'i be good for us if it was so, for we'd never grow 
in grace one particle. 



126 Silent Christians. 

SIGHTS NEAR THE SEA-SHORE. 

I'm saved to-night from everything that's wicked and 
bad. I was down to the sea-shore to-day to attend a 
Sunday-school gathering. On our way home the train 
stopped at a station, and a crowd rushed in until every inch 
of room was taken up, and such a crowd ! Men and women, 
old and young, and the fumes of their breath were sickening 
— regular bucket-shop rum. Just think of it; men and 
women too, with flushed faces, reeling brains, and with 
their breath so offensive with poison that it would knock 
a decent man down ! They had not been crowded in but 
a few moments before the atmosphere of the car was unfit 
for a hog to breathe. Yet these were men and women made 
in God's own image ! I am glad I am saved from being a 
drunkard and a public nuisance. God will save every one, 
if we will only get honest, and come to him for help on our 
knees. 

Let all do their duty to-night, and remember the one- 
minute rule. Some one said a few nights ago, in speaking 
of this one-minute rule, that there was " no liberty here." 
Such fellows want to get up and take up the whole 
time themselves, spinning it off by the yard, and then 
they'll go off and say, " Oh, we had sucJi liberty down at 
McAuley's." Yes, but they had it all to themselves : no one 
else had a bit ! Now, let all speak short and to the point. 



GETTING RID OF '' THE BLUES. 

The meeting is open for testimony. We will never see 
this night again. May the Lord help us to testify for him, 
for we may never have another opportunity I Some come 
here night after night and always keep still, never speak at 



God's Poiuer to Save. 127 

all. I often think if God's cause here depended on you, 
it would be a poor affair. Some folks come here with the 
blues, they say, and can't talk. Why don't you get rid of 
them before you come here, or else get up and confess, 
and get blessed ? I often come when I feel like lying 
down in the aisle, I feel so bad ; but I see the need of put- 
ting forth an effort to rescue poor perishing souls, and so I 
ask God to help me, and do the best I can. Don't you know 
the Lord takes a worm sometimes to thrash a mountain ? 
I am saved to-night from everything wicked and bad. I was 
once without a friend, without a home, without God, and 
without a hope for either world ; now I have all of these, 
and have had for fourteen years. Some good people think 
that God can't save a blackguard ; but if you will come 
here often, you will be wonderfully disappointed when you 
see some that God saves here ! I was once one of the 
dirtiest, drunken, fighting old tramps you ever saw. God 
converted me in an instant ; I never swore an oath since 
that day, nor knocked a man down — that is, in anger ; I 
used to have to carry them out on my shoulder down in 
Water Street Mission ; but what I claim is that God takes 
the ugly fight all out of a man when he converts him — 
don't make him a coward, but takes away all desire to 
harm any one else. God always makes a way of escape for 
us. I have had men draw back to strike me, but they 
didn't do it, and if they had I don't know what I should 
have done ; but God made a way of escape, somehow or 
other, so they didn't strike me. 

Now, I want you all to take hold here to-night, and 
make this an interesting meeting. You can't find any 
better place than this to go. Just hear this singing. Talk 
about your paid choirs, why this beats them all ! Some of 



128 A Great Change. 

them get their ten thousand dollars a year, but they can't 
compare with this. I have a great many gentlemen and 
ladies, uptown and down, speak to me about this wonder- 
ful singing, and they all say they never heard the like. Do 
you know why? because we're singing for Jesus here! 
That's what makes the melody, " making melody in your 
liearts r Now, let all speak, and tell what God has done for 
your souls. 

* -jf * * * * 

I am a monument to God's grace and God's mercy and 
God's forbearance. The longer I live the more I see it and 
feel it. May the Lord keep me humble \ May the Lord 
keep me grateful ! I don't care much about the world ; it 
looks small to me. Perhaps it would look bigger if I had 
better health. I have cause to love God. He picked me 
up from a terrible hole, and washed me from my sins. 
Now you have heard the biggest debtor to grace that is in 
the room ; let the next heaviest debtor follow me. 



HUMBLE AND HAPPV. 

The Lord has been at work, and the more the Lord 
works the more humble I feel. I pray God to keep me so, 
for I know that without Him I could do nothing. I have 
nothing to be proud of ; I am proud of my Saviour, and not 
of m3^self. I was a notorious drunkard and gambler. Even 
my wife does not know some of the sins I committed, and 
she never will till the Day of Judgment. I don't know 
what to say to express my feelings of thankfulness. I 
know I have been converted, that is, if conversion is 
ceasing to love that which is evil and loving that which is 
good. I know that divine grace saved me from a drunk- 



^' Getting Religion'* 1 29 

ard's grave. Now there are many here who can thank God 
with me for saving them, and whom he has cleaned inside 
and out. They ought to tell others the story. Don't let 
us be like the nine lepers who were healed by the Lord 
Jesus, and never came back to thank Him. 



HE HAD GOT RELIGION. 

I don't encourage any one to be careless or to run any 
risk of falling from God, but when they do fall I shall take 
them back again and help them to God. It is a dangerous 
thing to give way to sin and fall from our love to God ! 
We might fall once too often and die ere we could recover. 
Yes, it's dangerous to fall even once^ for God might cut us 
off. Oh, how terrible it would be ! Why it's like stepping 
right out of heaven into hell! Isn't it awful? I fell three 
times when I first started. I was ignorant ; I knew nothing 
of the Christian life or its peculiar duties or perils, so I had 
to learn by bitter experience. Some persons have asked 
me, *' Do you really believe you were converted before your 
falls ?" Yes, I was ; I know I was converted while in a 
prison-cell. Why, I was so happy I fell like a dead man on 
my cell-floor, and didn't know anything for a long while. 
When I got up I couldn't contain myself. I knocked 
things around and shouted, and I suppose made a terrible 
to-do. The keeper heard it, — a tall old Jew we called 
*' Shadpole," because he was so long and slim, — and slipping 
along with his slippered feet to my door he peeked in 
between the bars and hollered, half-scared like, " What's the 
matter in there?" I didn't answer him, but kept right on ; 
I couldn't help it ; and he yelled again : 

"Say, what's the matter?" 
9 



1 30 Jerry s Plan Overruled, 

*' Oh," I cried, " I've got religion!" 

^' V/hat ?" 

" I've got r-e-1-i-g-i-o-n," I answered again. 

" I'll give you r-e-1-i-g-i-o-n," he growled, and proceeded 
to take down my number for a cold shower-bath for next 
morning. I suppose he thought I needed cooling off, hut I 
never got it. The Lord made that man lose his book or get 
confused about the number or something, for I was not 
punished at all. I went to work after that conversion like 
any other converted man, and if I do say it myself, others 
were led to God. I only had a half hour at a time, but 
I improved it among my fellow-prisoners 'to say a word of 
kindness, and we would often shed tears together. Oh yes, 
I believe I was converted even though I was so foolish as 
to fall away for a season afterwards. I believe you may 
possibly fall away, but I advise you to come back quickly, 
get forgiven, and never run any risk of falling again by your 
own carelessness or failure to watch and pray, and trust 
Jesus. I never could see how any Christian could be idle. 
I can't keep still ; I must be doing something for others, or 
I'd die. 



THOUGHT HE WOULD BE A DETECTIVE. 

Did you ever hear how near I came to being a regular 
paid detective? Well, I'll tell you. I thought I might as 
well do something for myself, and concluding I'd make a 
good detective I went to A. T. Stewart's large place and 
applied for a position as a detective. The man looked at 
me awhile and seemed dubious about it. 

" Don't you know," he asked, '' that it requires a great 
deal of talent to be a detective ?" 



Last Public Testimonies, 1 3 1 

"Yes, I know it, and I believe I have the necessary tal- 
ent, sir, to make a success of it." 

'* Have you had any previous experience in this work, 
and knowledge of the class of characters you will have to 
deal with ?" 

" Oh, yes, quite an experience." 

" Where, and under what circumstances ?" 

So I had to tell him who I was, what I'd been, and all 
about it. When I got through he looked at me in astonish- 
ment for a moment, but finally said, " You will undoubtedly 
hear from me in a few days in regard to this matter. I'll 
send you our decision in that time. I can encourage you 
with the assurance that it will be favorable to your wishes." 

I went home, and was looking for the man to send me the 
answer, but before he had time to do so the Lord sent me 
the pneumonia and laid me upon my back for six weeks ; so 
my detective job was all lost, and I've stuck to the mission 
work. God has given me a great many souls for which I 
am very grateful, and am very much encouraged to hold on 
as long as I may live. 



LAST TESTIMONIES. 

It was Jerry McAuley's earnest desire to testify with his 
dying breath to the power of saving grace. This God per- 
mitted him to do publicly up to within a very few days of 
his departure. On the evening of Friday, September 12, 
less than a week before his death, he said in the Mission 
meeting: 

" I feel as if I want to testify always, and even with my 
dying breath, to the goodness of God in saving me. Some- 
times I do not seem to have words to express my feelings 



132 Effect of the Bible. 

of thankfulness to Him for His great mercy, or words to 
praise Him for His goodness in saving me from going down 
to perdition." 

On the night of Sunday, September 14, his last Sunday on 
earth, after listening to the story of the woman of Samaria, 
Jerry said : " She was a hard case. Respectable women 
would not have associated with her ; but the Son of God 
condescended to talk with her." Our brother spoke of the 
woman's selfishness. She wanted Christ's gift so that she 
might not any longer have the trouble of coming to the 
well to draw'water. He then spoke of himself as he once 
was, in no mild or measured terms. " I was a brute, I was 
one of the worst devils ever let loose in society, but the 
glorious Gospel contained in that blessed Bible civilized me. 
It is the greatest civilizer in the world. There is no power 
like it. It made a man and a Christian and a good citizen 
of me." 



Summoned by the King. 133 



CHAPTER XII. 

CALLED HOME. 

" My kingly King at His right hand 
My presence doth command, 
Where glory, glory dwelleth, 
In Immanuel's land." 

In the dealings of God with his* people infinite wisdom 
and infinite love ever blend. All things, death included, 
work together for good to those who love the Lord. Thus 
while we record the decease of him to whose memory these 
pages are devoted, it is in the blessed confidence that there 
was no mistake in the time of his departure. Our God 
knew best when to take his servant. Jerry McAuley was 
called home on September 18, 1884, being then forty-five 
years of age. He had long been ailing, and knew that the 
call home would probably come suddenly when it did come. 
And sudden indeed it was! On the day previous to his 
death Jerry was in the very best of spirits. In the after- 
noon he and Mrs. McAuley spent a brief while in Central 
Park, but immediately on their return home Jerry was 
seized with a hemorrhage of the lungs. Physicians were 
sent for and speedily arrived. It was on that night, while 
expecting that every moment would be his last, that he said 
to one of the converts of the Mission, pointing upward as 
he spoke, " It's all right up there." He was too much ex- 



134 Safe in Port. 

hausted to say more. Soon there came a little relief and 
some promise of improvement. On the morning of Thurs- 
day he requested his wife to read a psalm to him, and he 
listened with evident interest as she did so. On Thursday 
afternoon, when his wife said to him, '' Jesus is your 
Saviour," he twice nodded assent. At four o'clock, or a 
very few minutes after, another hemorrhage came on, and 
within three minutes his spirit had taken its flight. Pain 
and suffering were for him things of the past. He had 
entered into his reward. 

Since Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, it cannot be 
wrong for us to weep in the hour of bereavement ; but 
while we sorrow, we do " not sorrow as those who have no 
hope." The Christian sings, 

** Death no longer now we die; 
We but follow Christ on high." 

The loss of a friend, the loss of an honest, loving, conse- 
crated worker we mourn. Yet, with resigned hearts and 
submissive wills, we bow to the dispensation of our all-wise 
and ever-loving Father in Heaven, and say, " Even so, 
Father ; for so it seemed good in Thy sight." Remember- 
ing how God saved Jerry McAuley, and how useful in win- 
ning souls God made him, we rather rejoice at the sanctified 
life and its glorious success, than mourn at the so-called 
death. Nay, as we think of the reward that awaited him, 
the rest that remained for him, the welcome of the Re- 
deemer, the greeting of many now in glory who were saved 
through his instrumentahty, we can even rejoice at his de- 
parture. 

Even his death was not without fruit. One who looked 
upon his face as the body lay in the casket, then and there 



Broadway Tabernacle: Funeral Service, 135 

resolved by God's help to start in the new life. Nor has 
Jerry ceased to serve the Lord whom he loved. In that 
bright world where he now is the inhabitants serve their 
King unceasingly. They rest not day nor night doing his 
will. Saved from a life of sin, let us thank God that Jerry 
McAuley was TRANSFORMED; saved forever from 
suffering and sorrow, let us thank God that he has been 
TRANSLATED. 



The following account of the Memorial Service held in 
the Broadway Tabernacle is taken from Jerry McAuley s 
Neivspaper, of which mention has already been made. The 
account of the Memorial Service at No. 316 Water Street is 
from the same source. 

Broadway Tabernacle, Thirty-fourth Street and Sixth 
Avenue, was thronged on Sunday afternoon last (Sept. 21). 
The audience-room, the long deep galleries, the many 
aisles, the doorways and vestibules, were crowded. Hun- 
drens of disappointed people were unable to find entrance, 
and turned away, many of them after coming miles to be 
present at the Memorial Service. The exercises com- 
menced at half-past two o'clock. The Rev. S. Irenaeus 
Prime, D.D., senior editor of the New York Observer, pre- 
sided. The Tabernacle choir sang some pieces, and Mr. 
George W. Stebbins sang some solos. 

It was a most solemn and affecting service. The Rev. 
Dr. Deems, Pastor of the Church of the Strangers, read the 
Scriptures, and when he came to the words, ** Forasmuch 
as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord," our 
hearts felt that this was peculiarly true of Jerry McAuley's 
work. 

Dr. Prime, before calling upon the speakers who had 



136 A Plea for Outcasts, 

been chosen co address the large audience, referred briefly 
to his intimate acquaintance with the deceased. In him, 
he said, we had proof that the grace proclaimed in our holy 
religion could save and keep any man. If that could not, 
nothing could. 

The Rev. Dr. William M. Taylor, Pastor of the Broad- 
way Tabernacle Church, had just returned from Europe. 
The second item of intelligence he received on his return 
was the fact of Jerry McAuley's death. He had thought 
of the words of St. Paul, ''As sorrowing, yet always rejoic- 
ing." To the widow it brought sorrow, and there was 
sorrow as we thought of the loss sustained in the work. 
But to both sorrows there was a sure antidote. 

'' We commend the widow," he said, *' to the Saviour. He 
will minister to her comfort, until the call shall come to 
her, * Come up higher.' 

" In thinking of the man and his work, there are one or 
two things which have been deeply impressed upon my 
mind. As I have listened to his testimony, and the 
testimonies of those whom he has led to Christ, I have 
said, ' I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for // is 
the power of God unto salvation to them that believe.' If 
Jerry could be saved, who not ? After Jerry, anybody ! 
The world's outcasts can be saved by Christ. Jerry would 
say, and he could say it without affectation, ' Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners, and I am chief.* 
Jerry was an instance of a conversion in prison. We some- 
times get an idea that there is no use in sending chaplains 
to prisons. There is a good deal of a feeling of despair in 
the Church about work for prisoners. We should have 
greater faith in such work. Let us learn to think more 



A Wonderful Redeemer. i 3 7 

for them when coming out of prison. Just as Paul in 
Damascus fell into the hands of Barnabas, Jerry at length 
fell into good hands. He once said he felt it so good to be 
trusted after he came out of prison. 

" ' Deal gently with the erring, as thy God hath dealt with 
thee ! ' Jerry's case is a beautiful illustration of how God 
brings good out of evil. Through the evil of Jerry's early 
life God fitted him for special labor. A history like that 
helps one to understand what God means when He says, ' I 
will restore the years which the locusts have eaten.' The 
years destroyed by sin were made up by the multiplied 
usefulness of the later years of Jerry's life. Thus let 
sinners put themselves in the Lord's hands. He will 
restore the years which the locusts have eaten. What a 
glorious Gospel ! What a powerful Saviour ! What a 
wonderful Redeemer we have ! Haply some one is here 
to-day, almost swept in by the crowd, who is enslaved by 
evil habits. Take courage. As contact with the. bones of 
the prophet Elisha started the dead man into life, so coming 
into contact with the truths this casket preaches now may 
you be brought to life !" 

Mr. A. S. Hatch, Jerry McAuley's old and tried friend, 
spoke with great feeling. '* The impulses of my heart," he 
said, ''would lead me to sit beside this casket a silent 
mourner ; but," he added, *' no one except his wife knew 
Jerry better than I did. It was my privilege in the begin- 
ning of his struggle up toward a better life to encourage 
him by the warm grasp of a helping hand and to speak to 
him words of hope and cheer; and it has been my privilege 
also, when clouds and darkness have gathered about my own 
pathway, to be uplifted and comforted by the simple and 
childlike, yet robust faith of Jerry and his wife, and by their 



138 The Grief of Thousands. 

sublime trust in the loving Providence of God. If I should 
keep silence I might seem faithless to the memory of my 
dead friend. 

" Jerry McAuley is dead. There are but few names which 
linked with such an announcement would have aroused a 
more widespread interest than is felt to-day wherever men 
say to each other * Jerry is dead ;' not because a great 
man, as the world counts greatness, is gone, but in recogni- 
tion of a humble, sincere, and earnest life, devoted for six- 
teen years to the uplifting and saving of lost men and 
women. The flags of the city are not at half-mast to-day ; 
no drums will beat in the funeral procession that will bear 
him to his last resting-place to-morrow ; no volleys will be 
fired over his grave. Yet thousands of lowly hearts are 
bowed down with grief for the friend they have lost ; while 
men and women in all classes of life who owe him a debt of 
gratitude they are not ashamed to own, are pondering with 
bowed heads and chastened hearts the lessons of the life and 
death of this once despised and hunted river thief, but for 
sixteen years the chosen servant of God, signally honored 
and used of Him. No fulsome eulogy would be in place 
over this now still and lifeless form. Could Jerry rise up in 
his cofifin and speak, he would himself rebuke the man who 
should utter it. For Jerry gloried not in himself, but in the 
blessed Saviour who had transformed him from what he once 
had been to what by wondrous grace he had become. He 
was always humble, for he always remembered the pit from 
which he had been digged. He continually rejoiced in the 
power of Divine love, and of the grace of Jesus Christ that 
could so save and keep such as he. He used to say to the 
outcasts who felt that they were so low down in sin that 
there was no hope and no salvation for them, 'There is 



A Lesson for the Church. 139 

hope in Jesus Christ for anybody, for He saved me.^ His 
labors spent for the salvation and redemption of the lost 
were not in vain ; and his steadfastness to the end, and 
his triumphant death, have now confirmed and empha- 
sized the lessons of his life, and his constantly reiterated 
testimony to the power of Jesus to save. The Church of 
Christ needed the lesson of his sixteen years of labor, and 
their wonderful fruits. Although theoretically all Christians 
believe that the vilest sinner may be saved, yet there is 
much practical unbelief and scepticism on the subject, when 
they are brought face to face with some of the worst forms 
of human depravity and of the wretchedness wrought by sin, 
and are called upon to believe, and to act as if they believed 
in reality, that individual human wrecks are worth trying to 
save. It is this lesson, that none are so utterly lost but 
there is hope in laboring for their salvation, that there is no 
depth of human degradation to which the arm of Jesus 
cannot reach down and from which His grace cannot lift 
the sinner up, that the life and work of Jerry have taught 
us. In conclusion, I would hold up Jerry, as he loved best 
to hold himself up, as I know he would most wish to be 
held up in this place to-day — as a monument of divine grace, 
as a signal example of the power of Jesus' blood to cleanse 
the vilest sinner. 

" Let our lives be such that when we are called upon to 
step out from the ranks of the living and take our places in 
the shadowy procession of the dead, we may be able, as 
Jerry was, to look back upon years spent in earnest work 
for the Master, and looking forward and upward say with 
Jerry, * It's all right.' " 

Mr. Sidney Whittemore then spoke of the world-wide 



140 A Graiid Possibility I llusti' ate d. 

influence of the deceased's work. Many had gone out 
from Water Street to be missionaries all over the globe. 
Jerry was strong as a lion for courage, yet had a heart gen- 
tle as a woman's. He once spoke roughly to a man who 
refused to cease his musical performances during the hours 
of the Mission services, and afterwards went to the man to 
ask his forgiveness for his somewhat hasty words — and 
this although the man's insults had brought them out. 

The Rev. Dr. Deems said a stranger might well ask the 
meaning of this great audience. Here were the clergy, 
here were men of means, women of culture, all come to pay 
a tribute of respect to whom ? To a huated river-thief. 
It was the romance of grace and of Providence. It was not 
his ancestry, his beauty, his brains, or his services to science 
that brought out these thousands of people. It was all 
because one day in prison Jerry accepted God's offer of 
salvation, and took Christ as his present, personal, and 
sufficient Saviour then and there. We could all do that. 
Then he was a forcible illustration of the possibility of the 
redemption of a human soul from the bottomless pit of the 
lowest degradation. Why labor with such — they will fall 
back? many asked, but here was one man who for sixteen 
years had fought the battle against the old sins and lusts 
and passions, and had conquered. Dr. Deems closed with 
an eloquent appeal to the unsaved. Were there not some 
present who had heard Jerry's appeals from the Mission 
platform and who had not heeded them. Though Jerry's 
uttered appeals had not moved them, should not the ap- 
peal of his silent lips win them now? 

These addresses were followed by the singing of a solo 
by Mr. Stebbins, who rendered it with his usual tender 



The Sunlit Cross. 141 

pathos amid the Intense silence of the audience. As he 
sung the words, 

" We too must come to the river side, 
One by one, one by one ; 
We're nearer its brink each evening tide. 
One by one, one by one." 

the stillness seemed almost painful, and it was difficult to 
restrain the pent-up feelings of the heart. The Rev. 
Wilbur F. Watkins followed in a prayer that was most 
tender and touching : the choir sang " I will sing of my 
Redeemer," and Dr. Prime invoked the apostolic benedic- 
tion. 

The casket containing the remains of the deceased was 
decorated with floral tributes at once chaste and beautiful. 
A cross lay thereupon, and at the close of the prayei 
offered by Dr. Watkins the rays of sunlight which had 
been streaming through the windows all the afternoon 
reached the cross, and by their effulgence lit it up with a 
dazzling brightness. It seemed as though Heaven would 
bear shining witness to the efficacy of the cross as the 
power by which our departed brother had been lifted out 
of darkness into light, out of death into life. It was a 
most impressive incident and a striking type. The light of 
God's saving power does fall on the cross of Calvary, and at 
the cross is light, the light of hope and life for all, no matter 
how lowly nor how lost. 

The service over, the audience passed by the coffin to take 
a farewell look at the remains of the honored missionary, 
nearly two hours being occupied by the sorrowing throng in 
paying this tribute of respect to the dead. Next day all that 
was mortal of the deceased was laid away in Woodlawn Cem- 



142 A Touching hicident. 

etery. There the sacred dust will rest until the archangel's 
trump shall sound, and those who have fallen asleep in 
Christ shall rise immortal. " Precious in the sight of the 
Lord is the death of his saints" (Psalm cxvi. 15). " Blessed 
are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, 
saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors ; and 
their works do follow them" (Rev. xiv. 13). 

" There is no death ! The stars go down. 
To rise upon some fairer shore ; 
And bright in heaven's jewelled crown 
They shine for evermore." 



The following incident, published in ' the New York 
Herald 2X the time of Jerry's funeral, serves to show how 
ready Jerry was with a word of sympathy for any one in 
trouble who came across his path. It shows also that such 
words are remembered and treasured even by those whose 
appearance promises little lasting impression. 

Two gentlemen — one of them a representative of the 
Herald — were standing at or near one of the entrances of 
the Tabernacle, when a shabby-looking old man, who had 
been lounging on the outskirts of the crowd, approached 
them and said : 

" * Beg pardin, gents, but seein' as you were kinnected 
here and seein* as how I ain't posted on ways and things, I 
thought I'd ask you for a favor.' 

''Both of the listeners were turning away expecting an 
untimely appeal for alms. But the other said, ' I've heard 
it's the right thing to send flowers and sich to put on the 
coffin of any one who's bin good to you. Well, I don't 
know, gents, whether I've got the rights of it or not. But 
there's somethin' here for Jerry.' 



A Lowly Tribute. 143 

" He took off his tall, battered hat as he spoke, and felt 
in it with trembling fingers, ' It ain't any great shakes,' he 
said, and he took out a little bunch of white flowers. Then 
looking up, as though to read in the faces of the listeners 
approval or disapproval, he went on, apologetically : 
* They're no great shakes, I allow, and I 'spect they mayn't 
set off the roses and things rich people send. I'm a poor 
man, you know, but when I heard Jerry was gone, I gets 
up and says to myself, " Go on and do what's fash'nable ; 
that's the way folks do when they want to show a dead 
man's done a heap for 'em." So there they are.' 

** The usher took them. 

"'And when you drop 'em with the rest, though they 
ain't no great shakes,' he added, with the old apologetic 
look, 'Jerry, who was my friend, '11 know,' and his voice 
trembled ; 'he'll know they come from old Joe Chappy.' 

" ' What did he do for you ? ' the reporter ventured. 

" 'A great deal,' the old man replied. ' But it's long ago 
now. My gal had gone to the bad, and was dyin' without 
ever a bite for her to eat. I got around drunk, but it 
sobered me, and I hustled about to hunt up some good 
man. N. G. They asked if she went to Sunday-school and 
all that. O' course she didn't. How cud the poor gal? 
Well, they called her names, sed she wus a child o' wrath, 
and I went away broken-hearted, when I come across Jerry, 
and he went home with me and comforted me, and he sed 
that Almighty God wouldn't be rough on a poor gal what 
didn't know no better. She died then, but I ain't forgot 
Jerry.' 

" The poor old wreck could not be prevailed upon to 
enter, and the crowd was so great that the little bunch of 
flowers could not reach the casket. But the reporter 



1 44 Preserved as a Treasure, 

thought, as he saw the floral emblems there, that none of 
them would be sweeter to the dead than that simple 
offering." 

The incident is a true one, and the little bunch of white 
flowers has been tenderly preserved by Mrs. McAuley. 
Who shall say that the memory of Jerry and of some fur- 
ther word spoken by him may not be the means even yet 
of bringing the man who gave them to a knowledge of 
Jerry's Saviour? 



Water Street Memorial Service. 145 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ON THE OLD SPOT. 

"The dead are like the stars by day, 
Withdrawn from mortal eye, 
Yet holding unperceived their way 
Through the unclouded sky. 

** By them, through holy hope and love, 
We feel, in hours serene. 
Connected with a world above. 
Immortal and unseen." 

The Memorial Meeting held at 316 Water Street on Sun- 
day afternoon, September 28, will not be forgotten by those 
who were present. Not only were tributes of esteem to 
the memory of Jerry McAuley uttered by those who were 
coworkers with him or who knew him and his work, but 
many who had been led by him to Christ testified as to 
what grace had done for them through our departed 
brother. 

It was eminently appropriate to hold a memorial service 
on the old spot where he commenced his work, and where 
for so many years God so richly blessed him to the salva- 
tion of souls. The Mission-hall was packed, and at every 
window were persons who could not find room inside, but 
bore the discpmfort of standing all the way through,, listen- 
ing with deepest attention. 

The exercises commenced precisely at the hour arranged, 
half-past two, and continued for two full hours with unflag- 
10 



146 A Memorable Son 



ging interest. General Clinton B. Fisk presided, and after 
the congregation had sung the hymn, " They are gathering 
homeward one by one," called on Rev. J. W. Sanford to 
read from the Bible and pray. The Scriptures selected were 
most appropriate, and were impressively read, the prayer 
was simple and solemn, and then we sang the words, *' I 
heard the Saviour say, etc." The chorus brought to Gen- 
eral Fisk's recollection some of the scenes in the old Mission 
building, which preceded the one in which we met on this 
Sabbath afternoon. Often in the old days, when, kneeling 
with Jerry and his wife and others, some soul Avas born into 
the Kingdom, Jerry would say, "sing ' Jesus paid it all.' " 
Reference was made to the memorial meeting of the pre- 
vious Sabbath at Broadway Tabernacle. The audience on 
that occasion the speaker likened to a slice of metropolitan 
life cut lengthways, so that there was some of the top crust, 
some of the bottom crust, and some of all between. The 
best of saints and the most sinful of all were there. Men 
high in financial circles, in social life, and in professional life, 
were the pall-bearers in the funeral procession which wended 
its way from 104 West Thirty-second Street to the Taber- 
nacle. A stranger might have asked. Who is this at whose 
death the city is stirred ? Was he a great warrior whose 
sword saved the Republic? No! although he was a victor, 
his victories were those of mercy, not of carnage. He 
was not a statesman eminent in the forum. He was a sim- 
ple, unlettered man. On his coffin were the words, *' Died 
September 18, 1884. Jeremiah McAuley, aged 45 years." 
That was the story. 

He had been one of the worst of men, but became one 
of the best, simply through the blood of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Accepting Christ for himself, he had been used 



Swearing Johnny s Conversion. 147 

of God to preach the Gospel by his words and by his 
walk. 

General Fisk spoke of his early association with Jerry in 
the work, and of its extended influence. In Liverpool one 
night he heard a rough-looking sailor speak in a seamen's 
mission-meeting. Though the man was rough his face 
shone. '* I found Jesus over there in America," he said, 
and all who heard him listened in wonder. This man was 
known as Swearing Johnny. '' When we were paid off I 
took my money to the saloons, and then pretty soon I 
was drunk again. Then I went out into the street, and 
the snow was beating against my face. As I passed along 
the street I heard singing, and stopped to listen. I heard 
them sing ' Jesus loves even me.' ' I'll go in and see about 
it,' I said to myself." He went in and there he saw " that 
wonderful man, Jerry McAuley," and he led him to Christ. 
** Yes," said his wife, ''and it has been nothing but Jerry 
McAuley and ' Jesus loves even me ' ever since Johnny's 
ship came home." At Marseilles General Fisk heard a 
very similar testimony from another redeemed man, and 
Mrs. McAuley, he said, had letters from all parts of the 
globe — letters baptized with many tears — which testified 
to the work done by this one good man. The speaker con- 
cluded with an earnest appeal for renewed consecration. 
" Let us consecrate ourselves anew to the service," he 
said. " Catch the standard ere it falls. In the first regi- 
ment I led into the field in the war, the boy who carried 
the banner fell almost at the first firing ; his brother sprang 
forward and grasped the standard, so that our flag never 
went down. See that the standard that Jerry has dropped 
be not allowed to fall." 

One of the early and most helpful friends of the deceased 



148 Hand Picked Souls, 

missionary was the Hon. William E. Dodge, now in glory. 
He was often in the Mission meeting, and knelt with those 
who sought salvation and prayed and labored with them. 
The memory of his love of the work made it all the more 
pleasant to hear from his son, the Rev. E. Stuart Dodge. 
He likened Jerry to a jewel taken up from the depths, but 
the speaker would have us glory not in Jerry McAuley but 
in the grace magnified in him. We must remember in 
speaking of him that he always glorified his Master. He 
told men and women that Jesus could save. Poor lost 
souls came to him and heard that there was a Saviour 
mighty to save, and so were converted. Jerry honored the 
Gospel as revealed in the Bible. He read the Bible, talked 
the Bible, preached the Bible. It was God's Word, and in 
it was revealed the power of God to save. Jerry believed 
in prayer. When he prayed he did not pray all around the 
universe. If he was interested in a soul he just prayed for 
that particular soul, and God heard and saved. Moreover, 
Jerry believed in hand-picked souls. The best fruit is not 
shaken from the tree, but picked by hand, one by one. 
So he would hold up Christ before one soul. He believed 
in the power of the Spirit of God. He did not beheve that 
his efforts or anybody's else would save. He believed that 
God's Spirit would bless the truth about the blood so that 
it would do its own convicting and converting work. " What 
a difference this truth worked in him ! Once a dock thief, 
Jerry McAuley went up to heaven, his arms all full of 
sheaves. Let us magnify and honor the Gospel of God, 
which makes such a change !" Two thoughts the speaker 
impressed in closing. " If there is one here who has not 
given his heart to the Saviour," he said, *^ remember that 
God saved Jerry McAuley, and He can save you. God 



Recollections of Jerry, 149 

lifted Jerry up, and you have no right, therefore, to despair 
or to doubt God's mercy. Christian workers, since God 
used this instrument for His own mighty purposes, no one 
can say, ' God cannot use me.' We cannot do Jerry 
McAuley's work, but we can do our work as Jerry did his — 
with consecrated hearts and true faith." 

Rev. E. D. Murphy was the next speaker. He has been 
pastor of the Mariners' Church on Catherine Street for 
more than twenty years. He said that thinking of what 
Water Street was twenty years ago, this audience seemed 
perfectly wonderful. It was at that time one of the worst 
streets in the city. He recollected the first religious meet- 
ing attempted there. He recalled, too, the first time that 
he ever saw Jerry McAuley. The latter was rather a 
rough-looking man then. It was in the midst of the John 
Allen excitement that Jerry came to him and said, *' I've 
served the devil very faithfully in the Fourth Ward " (the 
Bloody Fourth, it was often called then), '' and now I want 
to try to do something for the people there. If some per- 
son would rent a building, I would fit it for men who have 
just come out of State's Prison." He would have cots for 
them to sleep on, and br^ad and coffee to give them in the 
morning, he said, and have a prayer-meeting for them in the 
evening. Mr. Murphy had no doubt of Jerry's honesty, 
sincerity, and earnestness ; but he must confess that he did 
doubt the man's ability and judgment. Not liking to dis- 
courage him, he recommended him to see Mr. A. S. Hatch, 
and Rev. G. J. Mingins, the city missionary in that ward. 
The next thing Dr. Murphy heard about it was that a build- 
ing had been rented and the work was begun. " We learn 
that God's ways are not our ways," said the speaker 
" Who would ever have thought of selecting Jerry for the 



1 50 Coming to Close Quarters. 

work he did. But Jesus died to save sinners, and in His 
sight a thief's soul is as precious as any. God desired to 
reach such, and so made choice of one of the least promis- 
ing, and baptized him and filled him with the Holy Ghost, 
and told him to go to work." Jerry's ready mother-wit, 
the tenderness of his appeals to the unsaved, his prayers, so 
simple, tender, gentle, as though talking with the Lord, and 
his personal work with souls, passed under review. Then 
Dr. Murphy said that hundreds of sailors had come under 
his notice in his church work, who had been led to Christ 
by Jerry McAuley. Every single night Jerry had hold of 
somebody. 

Dr. Murphy concluded his remarks by emphasizing the 
value of personal work with souls. In connection with his 
house of worship are eight or nine inquiry-rooms which 
have proved the birthplace of many souls. In personal con- 
versation men cannot pass the truth presented over to their 
neighbors. They know it is addressed to them individually. 
At the close of the address two of the members of Dr. 
Murphy's choir sang a duet : 

" We shall sleep, but not forever, 
There awaits a glorious dawn, 
We shall meet to part — no never, etc." 

General Fisk said he had letters from some of the Cre- 
morne Mission trustees, expressing regret at their inability 
to attend the service, owing to absence from town. Messrs. 
J. Noble Stearns, John H. Boswell, Samuel E. Hiscox, and 
James Talcott were all heard from. The latter closed with 
these words : " As we hold this service in his memory, may 
our own hearts be filled with a deeper love for Christ, and 
our lives receive a fresh impulse to work for souls, that the 



Jerry as a Commentator, 15 1 

world shall not be poorer because this brave, true heart has 
gone to its reward." 

Mr. A. S. Hatch, another of the trustees, and who was 
used under God as a sheet-anchor for Jerry McAuley when 
the latter started on his career as a Christian worker, fol- 
lowed with an address. The chairman said that Jerry would 
often speak to him of Mr. Hatch's good help. *' I could 
not have struggled on to success," the redeemed man would 
say, *' had it not been for the brotherly sympathy and help- 
fulness that Christ Jesus inspired toward me in the heart of 
Mr. Hatch. He trusted me, General, and that's what saved 
me." 

Mr. Hatch said that he loved Jerry with a love and sor- 
rowed for him with a sorrow which could not be expressed 
in words, and he would not therefore attempt to speak of 
his own emotions at his death. But here on the spot where 
Jerry first bore testimony to the power of the Lord Jesus 
to save, and where he first commenced his work, the speaker 
thought it peculiarly fitting to draw some lessons from his 
life. He was a remarkable man in many respects. Almost 
without worldly education he became by grace and prayer 
and the study of God's Word learned in the wisdom that is 
from above. He had a remarkably vivid apprehension of 
those portions of Scripture which are particularly adapted 
to the class whom he mainly sought to reach. Those who 
had heard him speak of the prodigal son, of the thief on the 
cross, of the publican in the temple, of the woman taken in 
adultery, or of her who washed the feet of Jesus with her 
tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head, would 
never forget it. The sweetness and tenderness which grace 
had infused into that naturally rough nature were wonder- 
ful to see, and would ever be remembered by those who 



152 Jei^rys Last '' Slip,'* 

had seen them poured out over kneeHng and repentant 
sinners, or experienced them in private relations of personal 
friendship. It was beautiful to see the flowers and fruits 
of grace blossoming and ripening on the branches which 
Jesus had grafted on that rugged trunk. A more earnest, 
faithful, conscientious, and devoted laborer for the Master 
whom he loved, and for the lost men and women over whom 
his heart yearned, never lived than Jerry McAuley. Jerry 
loved to proclaim the power of Jesus to save to the utter- 
most all who come to God by him. It was not two weeks 
since the speaker was asked if he believed there were any 
permanent results from this mission work. " Why, look at 
Jerry,** was the reply ; " he has stood." " Well, perhaps 
he'll slip," was the inquirer's response. When Mr. Hatch 
told Mrs. McAuley of this incident a day or two previously, 
she replied, ''Yes, he has slipped — slipped into heaven." 
The speaker said that the truth proclaimed by Jerry so con- 
stantly in his life, namely, Christ's power to save to the ut- 
termost, had been enforced and emphasized by Jerry's 
death. His steadfastness to the end and his triumphant 
death had silenced forever the doubting suggestion that 
he might yet fall away. He could not fall now. Another 
lesson learned was that it paid to work for, and spend 
time and money for the redemption of, the outcast and de- 
graded. It was worth while to spend time and money on 
any soul for whom Christ had died. 

In concluding Mr. Hatch said that to the unsaved sinner, 
despairing perhaps because so low down in sin that he thinks 
there is no salvation for him, Jerry seemed to be saying 
still, '' Look at me ! Jesus saved me : there is hope for you." 
To the child of God he said that no labor, money, or pains 
spent in proclaiming the Gospel to the lost and perishing is 



Tributes from the Converts, 153 

spent in vain. If Jerry's death should enforce these lessons, 
he would not have died in vain. 

The order of the meeting was then changed. The ap- 
pointed speakers had accomplished their tasks, and those 
who owed their conversion to Jerry McAuley, as God's 
chosen instrument in connection with his Water Street 
work, were asked to speak. Mr. J. F. Shorey, the superin- 
tendent of the Water Street Mission, said he was saved in 
connection with Messrs. Moody and Sankey's meetings in 
New York, eight years ago. He had not long been intimate- 
ly acquainted with Jerry personally, but he had become very 
familiar with the results of his work, as he had heard so 
many testify how Jerry had led them to Christ. 

Several converts followed, and their testimonies were 
most touching, full of expressions of gratitude to God for 
having brought them under Jerry's influence. 

Of one of these tributes of gratitude — first to God, and 
then to Jerry — a full report was kept. It was the tribute 
of a young man. He said : 

" It was eight years ago last February that I came from 
my home in Brooklyn to the Water Street Mission. I had 
never heard testimonies before, but then I heard young 
men saying how happy they had been since Jesus saved 
them. I thought that if he saved them he would save 
me. I had a good home and Christian parents, but I was 
not happy, for I was sinning against God. Jerry got hold 
of me, and bid me go up to the bench, and the friends 
would pray for me. Well, I determined to put my trust in 
God's promises, and that night I started in the new way. 
Next night I went to the Mission again. I had not had a 
good day. I had not acted as a Christian ; so when Jerry 
asked me, * How do you feel to-day ; how have you got 



1 54 That Dear Old Bench, 

along?* I told him it had been a pretty poor day with me. 
'Well, don't be discouraged,' he replied, and then bid me 
go again to the bench and pray. I had a happier day next 
day. In the evening Jerry said to me, ' Well, how has it 
been to-day?' Then when I told him that I had been 
happier and had felt Christ's keeping power, he responded, 
' Get up and tell us about it then.' This was eight years 
ago, and Jesus saves me to-day. One night I remember 
that some sailors were at the bench — that dear old bench — 
where so many found the Saviour. We almost reverenced 
it ! One of these sailors longed to trust the Saviour, but 
could not see the way clear. How could he trust so as to 
be kept safe henceforth? That was the question. Said 
Jerry, 'Can't you trust the Lord from here to the door?' 
Yes, he thought he could do that. ' Then can't you trust 
Him from the door to the corner?' was the next question. 
Light burst into the man's heart and beamed upon his face, 
and he exclaimed, ' I see the whole of it, glory to God.' It 
is just trusting Jesus, simply trusting every day. I have 
not only Christian parents now, but I have a Christian wife 
too. I owe my salvation and all the blessing that has 
come since under God to Jerry McAuley. I put the Lord 
Jesus first and Jerry McAuley after. When men used to 
talk of what Jerry had done for them, he would say, ' Don't 
give me any glory, boys ; give God the glory. If I have 
been of any use to you it is all God working through me.' 
In Jerry's death I have lost one of my best friends." 

Could any words have more forcibly shown first Jerry's 
humility, and next his apt way of dealing with souls? He 
encouraged new converts in the early days of their Christian 
life ; when they felt that they had made any progress and 
overcome any temptation through Christ, he would have 



Jerry s Humility. 155 

them rise and testify. The testimony helped and strength- 
ened the converts who uttered it ; encouraged other con- 
verts, and impressed those who were yet in the darkness 
and bondage of sin. How suggestive, too, the words, 
"■ Don't give me any glory, boys !" To be successful in 
Christian work, self must be kept down, and Christ must be 
exalted. In Water Street, at the Cremorne Mission, any- 
where, everywhere, God honors those who seek to honor 
and glorify Him. 



156 J/r. Hate /is Remzmscences, 



CHAPTER XIV. 

CHARACTERISTIC SKETCHES AND PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 
OF JERRY M^AULEY. 

By A. S. Hatch. 

The ways of God are oft beyond our ken, 
And wiser far than ways of mortal men; 
Whom man rejects, the Lord doth often use; 
His corner-stone the builders did refuse. 

I BECAME acquainted with Jerry McAuley about the time 
of his restoration from the sad relapse into which he had 
fallen after his release from Sing Sing prison. The desper- 
ate and reckless life which he had led in the interval, as 
bounty-broker, gambler, prize-fighter, rough, drunkard, and 
river-thief, is graphically portrayed in his autobiography. 

All this, with his previous criminal and prison life, had 
left an unmistakable impress upon him, and his appearance 
told plainly enough what he had been. 

To the ordinary observer he was perhaps as hard and hope- 
less a looking case as one would be likely to encounter in 
tramping the worst streets of New York day and night for 
a month ; and in his dull eye, rough aspect, and illiterate 
speech, there was little promise of the future evangelist, or 
of the wonderful career of consecrated usefulness in the sal- 
vation of depraved and outcast men and women and of 
Christian influence, reaching to all classes in life, which has 
since made his name familiar, and his life and work a sacred 



The Wickedest Man in JVew York. 1 5 7 

memory, among those who love Jesus and beHeve in His 
power to save. It would have been a penetrating eye and a 
lively faith indeed that could at that time have transfigured 
Jerry, in imagination, into an instrument of moral and re- 
ligious force in the world, even in the hands of Divine 
power. 

It is with no irreverent memory of my dead friend that I 
sketch this picture of him as he then appeared. It is only a 
dim reflection of the portrait which, with inimitable effect of 
mingled pathos and drollery, he used to paint of himself as 
he was when the missionary found him in his den in Cherry 
Street ; not that he gloried^in the picture, or in the revela- 
tions of sin and crime of which it was the product, but 
because he gloried in the power of Jesus to save, and loved 
to magnify that power, and to illustrate it by what was to 
him its most real and conscious manifestation — the contrast 
between what sin had once made him, and that to which 
grace had redeemed him. 

Shortly before the time of which I am writing, Mr. Olive 
Dyer, a vigorous writer on current local events, had written 
and published m Packard's Monthly for July, 1868, an arti- 
cle entitled " The Wickedest Man in New York," which had 
a wide circulation and excited a profound interest. It was 
extensively reproduced in the daily and weekly papers 
throughout the country, and eagerly read by all classes. It 
was a revelation to many of the moral and Christian people 
of New York and elsewhere, who had before known nothing 
of the inner life of the dance-houses, rat-pits, and other cen- 
tres of vice and human degradation with which Water 
Street and its surrounding thoroughfares were at that time 
crowded. It brought down on that previously benighted 
region an army of curiosity-seekers, clergymen, missionaries, 



158 In the Lions Den. 

religious enthusiasts, and others, who contemplated the scene 
of the ** Wickedest Man's*' exploits with varied emotions 
and comments. Some good people were distressed with the 
thought that Oliver Dyer had only succeeded in advertising 
the dreadful business on which the locality thrived, and, by 
investing it with a spice of romance, had only made its 
naked repulsiveness more alluring to the vicious tastes of 
many who had previously shunned it as too deep a depth 
for them. But the keen wits of the proprietors of the dens 
which filled the neighborhood, and their practical eye to 
financial results, soon grasped the true outcome of it all ; and 
they hit the nail on the head when they said with blunt 
sincerity, ** It has spoiled our business. All these white cho- 
kers and black coats, and all this respectability, and hymn- 
singin', and prayin', and preachin', are keeping away our cus- 
tomers ; and these fellows don't buy any beer or whiskey, or 
dance with the girls." And after a few months many of 
them had thrown up the sponge and quit in disgust. 

Meanwhile some of the missionaries and workers con- 
nected with the Howard Mission had been exploring this 
moral wilderness, and among other noted apostles of vice, 
had fallen in with John Allen, the '' Wickedest Man" of 
Oliver Dyer's article. 

Allen was of respectable family, and a man of good intel- 
ligence, fair education, and considerable means. Two or 
three of his brothers were ministers of the Gospel. At this 
time he seemed to glory in the audacity and hardihood with 
which he sinned against light. His dance-house was a place 
of the vilest resort, and he ruled with an iron hand and a 
heart of stone the wretched women who inhabited it, and 
the hapless sailors and others whom they enticed into it. 
By some peculiar tact, aided by the mysterious influences of 



Prayer m a Dance-hoitse. 159 

Divine grace, the missionaries and the Christian gentlemen 
who accompanied them in frequent visits to this vile den, 
found their way to the good graces of its hardened master. 

One day they proposed that he should permit them to 
hold a prayer-meeting that evening in his dance-hall. In a 
spirit of good-humored bravado he told them they might 
try it if they liked, and take the consequences, but refused 
to have anything to do with it himself. That evening, after 
the scraping of the fiddle and the shuffling of feet had 
ceased, one of them stepped quietly into the room, and 
kneeling in the middle of the sanded floor, said, ''Let us 
pray ;" and before the astonished company had taken in the 
meaning of the unwonted spectacle, he was pouring out, in a 
voice thrilling with emotion, his eyes streaming with tears, 
an earnest prayer to God for the souls of all present, from 
John Allen down to the wretched fiddler in his corner. 
The effect was magical. Instead of the expected scoffs and 
gibes which Allen had predicted, and which the brave mis- 
sionary had braced himself with the enthusiasm of martyr- 
dom to meet, there was utter silence for a few minutes, 
save the voice of prayer, and then a sob here and there, 
and finally tears and sobs all around that room, whose walls 
had heretofore echoed only the profane and obscene speech 
and the hollow laughter of undisguised licentiousness and 
riot. 

These events marked the beginning of the " John Allen 
Excitement" as it was called, to which Jerry refers in his 
autobiography. 

Allen himself so far yielded to moral and religious in- 
fluences as to become thoroughly ashamed of his wretched 
business, and to abandon it. He offered his house for reli- 
gious meetings, which for a while were continued there, took 



i6o Co7iversion of ;^i6 Water Street, 

part in them himself, and expressed a desire for reformation 
and a better life. He was, after all, a man with a tender 
spot in his heart. He has come to me and told me of his 
struggles with the demons that had taken up their abode in 
his soul, and has laid his head on my shoulder and sobbed 
like a child, as he told me that he would give all he had in 
the world to bring back the pure influences of his child- 
hood, and blot out the record of his sinful and debauched 
life. He was, however, a vain man, and courted the noto- 
riety of being held up as a hard case reformed. He was 
saturated with vice and with the appetite for drink, and, 
although manifestly touched and moved, he did not seem 
to show those evidences of thorough reformation, and of 
the work of grace in his heart, which those interested in 
him hoped at one time to witness. He never went back to 
the miserable business in which he had been so long en- 
gaged, but opened a respectable grocery-store in Roosevelt 
Street, and died a few years afterward. It is not for human 
eye to discern, or human tongue or pen to say, that the 
influences of the remarkable religious outburst, in which he 
had unwittingly cut so conspicuous a figure, were lost upon 
him, or that on the banks of Jordan, or midway in its 
swelling stream, he did not meet and know the Saviour 
who had died for him, and hear repeated the gracious 
words that had opened the gates of Paradise to a dying 
thief on Calvary, eighteen hundred years before. 

After meetings had been held in his dance-house for 
a while, it was thought best to transfer them to another 
place, and the lease of a neighboring notorious dance-house 
was bought out and the work transferred to it. This was 
No. 316 Water Street, where Jerry McAuley first pubHcly 
testified of salvation and where he afterward commenced 



Preaching in Strange Places. 1 6 1 

his own work, and where the *' McAuIey Water Street Mis- 
sion" now stands. 

I have thought that the foregoing brief sketch of the 
beginning of active Christian work in Water Street would 
be of interest to many not familiar with its history, and 
would not be inappropriate here, on account of Jerry's refer- 
ence to it, and its connection with his own restored life and 
his subsequent work for the Master in the same locality. 

It seemed at that time to those who were actors in the 
scenes to which I have referred, almost as if a veritable 
miracle was being wrought in the opening to reHgious in- 
fluences and work of this abandoned and vice-ridden part 
of the city ; as if the Holy Spirit went before them and pre- 
pared the hearts of the godless throng who inhabited and 
frequented it, and held the mouths and hands of those who 
would before have cursed and stoned the messengers of the 
Gospel. I have myself spoken from the steps of John 
Allen's dance-house to a crowd filling Water Street almost 
from Roosevelt to Dover, and been listened to with quiet 
respect, where a few months before it would have been con- 
sidered as much as a man's life was worth to attempt to 
hold a religious service in the open air. We held prayer- 
meetings in Kit Burns' rat-pit, — a rough amphitheatre in the 
rear of a bar-room, — with the dogs growling, and the rats 
squealing in their cages under the benches, while Kit's cus- 
tomers, thronging his bar-room, looked on in respectful 
silence, any tendency to the contrary being promptly sup- 
pressed by Kit himself. 

11 



1 62 Jerry s Sincerity. 



CHAPTER XV. 

RECOLLECTIONS CONTINUED. 

• Christ first and last, Christ all day long, 
My hope, my solace, and my song; 
His love so full, so sweet, so strong. 
Christ for me, Christ for me." 

Unpromising as Jerry's appearance then was at first 
sight, there was something irresistibly winning about him, 
which at once awakened the interest of those who came 
in closer contact with him ; and I became impressed, before 
I had known him long, with the sincerity of his purpose, 
and a sort of sturdy, manly independence and earnestness 
which characterized him. I saw a good deal of him, and 
we became fast friends. 



One of the first evidences of the reality of the change 
which grace had wrought in him, and of the Divine light in 
his conscience, was a prompt confession that he and Maria 
were not man and wife, and a request for advice as to what 
they ought to do. " Be married," we said, *' of course." 
^Ah! there's the rub," said Jerry. 

Further conv&rsation developed the fact that there were 
reasons why their immediate marriage would not be expe- 
dient. 

We then told him that they must live apart until Provi- 
dence should open the way for their lawful union according 
to the ordinance of God. To this they readily assented. 



A Wedding Ceremony, 163 

Maria lived for a while in a Christian family in New Jersey, 
and afterward went to the home of her parents in another 
State and remained a while. When she came back, all 
obstacles having been by that time removed, they stood up 
together in the parlor of Howard Mission, and were sol- 
emnly joined in marriage, the writer and a few other 
friends being present. 

I do not think I ever in my life assisted at a wedding 
which afforded me more genuine satisfaction. During 
Maria's absence, Jerry used sometimes to bring me her 
letters to read, and talk with me about their future hopes 
and plans ; and in this way their sincere affection for each 
other sanctified by grace in their regenerated hearts, had 
been revealed to me. Their mutual devotion, and what they 
were to each other through all the trials and vicissitudes of 
their subsequent lives, and their final victory over their 
buried past in winning the confidence and respect of all 
who knew them, and until death parted them, does not 
need to be told. 

The blunt and uncompromising honesty before God 
which the foregoing incident illustrates was one of the 
immovable planks in Jerry's religious platform. 

'■'■ Be honest with God, and with yourself," he used to say 
to those professing repentance and desire for a better life, 
and yet seeming to be keeping something back; "you can't 
put off any humbugging lies on Him ; you may cheat me, 
and maybe cheat yourself, but you can't cheat God. Turn 
yourself inside out, and make a clean breast of it." 



There was little room in Jerry's heart for hatred of any- 
thing, after it became filled up with grace and with the 
spirit of the Master ; but he did hate hypocrisy. This was 



164 A Keen Scent for Hypocrites. 

about the only form of human weakness and depravity for 
which he did not have unHmited charity and compassion. 
He could not bear a hypocrite. It seemed as though he 
could not breathe with patience the air that was tainted with 
his presence ; almost as though he had a kind of magnetic 
consciousness, that there was a hypocrite somewhere about, 
before he got within a block of the Mission. He always 
wanted to " fire them out" and keep them out. 

This was about the only point on which Jerry and I ever 
split. I used to think sometimes that he was too hasty in 
his judgment, and too hard on those whom he thought were 
not honest. I used to tell him that he might mistake 
human inconsistency and the results of human weakness 
for hypocrisy, and that there was hope that even a hypo- 
crite might be reached by Divine grace, if he kept coming to 
the meetings. We had some lively discussions about it, but 
I could never make much impression on his convictions in 
this respect. I had abundant occasion to admit that Jerry 
had an uncommonly keen scent for hypocrisy, and sham 
and fraud of every kind, and that his intuitions in detect- 
ing them were generally correct. 

One night in Water Street a man who had come forward 
in the after-meeting was asked by Jerry, as his custom was, to 
pray for himself. He began praying in a conventional and 
stereotyped way, for all the poor sinners in the room, for 
the heathen, and for everything else but his own salvation. 
Jerry, feeling that the true ring was not there, kept still as 
long as he could, and then turning to the man, said, *' Look 
here, my friend, you had better ask God to have mercy on 
your soul," in a tone that would have seemed harsh and 
unfeeling to any one who did not know as well as Jerry 
did the kind of man he was talking to. 



A Peep at Jerry s Home. 165 

Jerry and his wife both had a very vivid sense of the 
change which grace had wrought in their hves and lot. 

I used to visit them in the humble lodgings, always 
scrupulously neat, in which they lived while Jerry was work- 
ing at one thing and another that he could find to do, 
before the Mission was opened. I had taken tea with them 
one night, — they were living in Division Street then, — and 
after tea we sat talking, and they told me a great deal 
about their past lives. Their thoughts were all of the 
wonderful things that God had done for them, and their 
talk of the past seemed to bring home to them with renewed 
force that night the blessedness they were then enjoying. 
After relating some of the sad and bitter experiences which 
sin had brought them, Maria, looking around the homely 
but cheerful room, and then at Jerry, and then at me, drew 
a long breath, and with a happy smile and glistening eyes 
said, '' Can it be possible this is us f 



In those early days Jerry set an inestimable value upon 
every token of trust in him. He had been so long hunted 
and dogged and accustomed to the thought that he was an 
outcast and outlaw whom nobody would trust out of sight 
with the value of a cent, that it was a new and sweet expe- 
rience to him to be trusted. What a moral invigorator a little 
timely confidence and reliance on his honor was to him, and 
may be to others in like circumstances, as illustrated -in one 
or two incidents, was often referred to in his public tes- 
timonies. He used to say, after telling what a miserable 
wretch, and moral and physical wreck he was before Jesus 
picked him up, " Just look at me now [holding open his 
coat and making a comical gesture of looking himself over], 
I have everything a man could want. I have plenty to eat, 



1 66 Jerry among the Bankers. 

a good home and good clothes, and / am respected and 
trusted. Think of Jerry McAuley, the biggest bum that 
used to hang out around this ward, turned into a respec- 
table citizen. Why, a few years ago, if a man with five dol- 
lars in his pocket met me coming down the street, he'd cross 
over on the other side, and lucky for him too ; but now I 
go down town, walk into a big banking-house, take an arm- 
chair, put up one leg over the other, and talk with the boss 
as big as life ; and they don't set any detectives to watch 
me either, or send for a policeman to run me out. This is 
what Jesus has done for me — made a man of me ; and he 
will do it for you too if you will let him." 

While Jerry was out of work, before he got steady em- 
ployment, he used to come to me once in a while to see if I 
could put him on the track of something to do. One day I 
said to him, " Jerry, I have got a job for you if you will take 
it." His eyes brightened. 

" I'll take anything that's honest," he said. 

" Well, Jerry," I said, " I have got a little yacht down in 
Gowanus Bay, that wants watching until I can sell it. Now 
I want you to go and live on it, and take good care of it, 
keep everything clean and in good order, and see that 
nobody runs off with anything, and I will pay you % — a 
month and your grub." 

" Will you trust me to do that ?" he said, with an expres- 
sion on his face that, between what was to him the 
comical side of anybody trusting him with valuable prop- 
erty, and the emotion which the idea of being trusted 
awakened when he had fairly taken it in, was a study. 
The unaccustomed luxury of feeling that he was trusted, 
got the upper hand, and his eyes filled with tears. 

The bargain was struck, and the next day Jerry took up 



Confidence Appreciated, 167 

his quarters on the little vessel. The boat had a lot of sil- 
ver-plated ware on board of no great value ; but, as Jerry 
told me afterwards, he thought it was " all solid silver, and 
worth a mint of money;" and, knowing that Gowanus Bay 
was infested with river thieves, he was greatly oppressed 
with the responsibility, and used to lie awake nights with 
his revolver cocked, and jump up and creep out on deck at 
the slightest sound of the stealthy dipping of oars. He 
told me afterwards that he was haunted with the fear that 
something might be stolen from the boat, and that when it 
was missed I would think he had betrayed his trust, and he 
determined that if anybody got anything out of that boat, 
it should be over his dead body. " After you had trusted 
me, I couldn't stand it, you know, to have you think ill of 
me, and I would have died first," he said. Jerry often 
used to tell this story, portraying his anxieties and describ- 
ing his night encounters with imaginary river-thieves, with 
inimitable effect, and would say, "■ When I found I was 
trusted like that by a man who knew all about my past life, 
I began to respect myself and think, ' Jerry McAuley, there 
is a chance for you after all, and you will be somebody yet 
before you know it,' and it gave me a big boost." 



It was some time before Jerry succeeded in getting steady 
employment. He worked for a while on one of the ferries, 
then as a 'longshoreman, then on a steamship dock, always 
ready to turn his hand to anything by which he could earn 
an honest living. The persecutions of godless fellow-work- 
men who mocked at his religion ; the injustice of foremen 
who encouraged them, and embraced every opportunity to 
place him at a disadvantage ; the requirement that he 
should work on Sunday, and other like causes, drove him 



1 68 A Seriotis Quesiion and a Safe Answer, 

out of these different employments one after another. 
These discouragements, however, never shook him from 
his purpose to Uve an honest hfe, and to hve it according to 
the Hght with which the Holy Spirit had illumined his con- 
science. 

After a while the writer found a vacancy for a porter in 
a sewing-machine establishment on Broadway, where he was 
well known, which he determined to secure for Jerry. The 
question which persons interested in procuring employment 
for ex-convicts have often found an embarrassing one natu- 
rally arose. Should I tell them frankly what he had been, 
and try to induce them to take him and trust him, with a 
full knowledge of his past criminal life, and his present pur- 
poses to serve God and be an honest man ? Or should I 
suppress all this, and simply recommend him as a man in 
whom I had confidence, and trust to the chances of his past 
remaining unknown ? I am aware that many good people 
have held opposite opinions as to the best course to be pur- 
sued in such cases. In Jerry's case it was decided in what I 
believe to be the only right way^ and the best and safest for the 
reformed man or zvoman in the end. I talked with him about 
it ; told him that, while it might be more difificult at first to 
find a place for him involving any trust or responsibility, if his 
story was frankly told, I was sure it would be better in the 
long-run to be square and open about it and trust God ; that 
if he went into this place, for example, under false or con- 
cealed colors, some one might turn up at any time who had 
known him, and, pointing him out, whisper in the ear of his 
employers or his fellow-workmen that they were harboring 
and working side by side with a man who had worn the 
stripes and been behind the bars ; when he would probably be 
turned out in disgrace, no matter how honest and faithful 



He would not be a Frattd. 1 69 

he had been, and be a marked man. Jerry fully agreed 
with me, and, with the unflinching honesty to which I have 
already referred, said, *' I don't want any hiding or dodging. 
I won't be a fraud in any way, whatever else I am. I want 
to be just Jerry McAuley, and nothing else." I then went 
to the establishment mentioned, and told them frankly about 
Jerry's past life — who and what he was, and what I knew he 
was resolved hereafter to be. I told them what I had seen 
and known of his new life, and expressed my entire confi- 
dence in his sincerity and honesty. They looked grave at 
first, but became warmly interested in my account of Jerry. 
They hesitated, however, fearing that his past career would 
be discovered, and make trouble among the others. Finally 
I said, "Take him ; trust him ; make no attempt to conceal 
his history ; let all your other men know that you know all 
about him, and have taken him for what he is, and I will be 
responsible for him ; if he runs off with anything, send me 
the bill." They took him, and he remained in their employ- 
ment until, in the enjoyment of the confidence and respect 
of the entire establishment, he left it to open the Mission 
in Water Street. When I told him, after he had been there 
a while, what I had said to them, and added laughingly, 
" If you should get away with a half-dozen truck-loads of 
sewing-machines some night it might break me," he said 
with an amused look, but with emotion, " You shall never 
be ashamed of me or sorry you said that. If the cellar 
where I work was a gold mine, or had diamonds lying all 
around loose, your promise should never cost you a cent." 



While he was working there I used to call frequently to 
see him. He worked in the packing-room in the basement, 
which had an entrance down a flight of steps on the side 



1 70 Jerry's Love of Singing. 

street. When I wanted to see him I used to run in that 
way. One day I called, and did not see him in his usual 
place. I waited a while, and presently he came out from 
behind a pile of packing-cases in one corner, with a radiant 
face. He said, " When I get lonesome and discouraged, and 
feel the blues coming on, I go down on my knees behind 
that great pile of boxes and pray, and then I am all right 
again." 



Jerry was passionately fond of singing, and had great faith 
in its efficacy as a means of grace to the converts, and in its 
power to attract those whom he sought to reach. He 
would say, when a verse of a hymn had not been sung to suit 
him, '' Try that again ; sing as if you meant it, and don't 
go to sleep over it. It will do you good. Why, if people 
should judge by the way you sung that verse they'd think 
your religion was an awfully dull and up-hill business. Now, 
let's raise the roof;" and suiting the action to the word, he 
would sing as if his whole soul and body went into the hymn. 

Sometimes at the beginning of the meeting, when the 
chapel was not filling up as fast as he would like to see it, 
he would give out a hymn like " Pull for the shore," or 
*' Let the lower lights be burning," in which there was ample 
scope for volume of sound, and say, " Open both the doors 
there wide. Now sing so they can hear you clear down to 
Dover Street and up to James Slip." And they did. 



He was very impatient of long-winded harangues in a 
testimony-meeting, and was inexorable in enforcing the 
*' one-minute rule" with which he had placarded the chapel, 
even at the expense of giving offence to thin-skinned people 
who were unused to his blunt ways and did not know 



Stiffering but Praising, 1 7 1 

the wealth of tender solicitude for sinners that lay under- 
neath his sharpest criticisms and his rudest speech. *' These 
long-winded fellows kill the meeting/' he would say. 
''Wind 'em up and set 'em a-going, and they don't know 
when to stop. Now speak short. If you've come in here 
with a long yarn all fixed up nice, with a beginning and a 
middle and an ending, just cut off both ends and give us 
the middle. I was a poor drunkard, a miserable loafer and 
tramp, without a decent coat to my back, full of wickedness 
and sin, and a terror around this terrible ward. Jesus 
picked me up and saved me, and has kept me saved. Glory 
to His name ! There's my testimony, and it didn't take me 
a minute to tell it either." 



When his health began to fail and the trouble with his 
lungs, the seeds of which had perhaps been sown in those 
dreadful nights on the river, had begun to be serious, he 
would sometimes, after an attack of pneumonia or a hemor- 
rhage, almost literally crawl down-stairs to the meeting. 
At such times he would say, with a tenderness and solem- 
nity that filled our hearts with emotion and our eyes with 
tears, ''They say I've got only one lung and part of another. 
I am weak and sore, and it hurts me sometimes to talk; 
but I think of what the dear Jesus suffered for me, and 
my heart is full. I am happy. Sometimes I think I can't 
live very long ; it seems as if my lungs were all gone ; but 
while I've got a piece of a lung left I want to use it to 
speak for Jesus. I want to praise Him with my dying 
breath." 



He had a wonderful faith — a faith which was childlike in 
its simple and confiding trust, yet firm as a rock. It was of 



172 Co7isecrated Pei^sistency. 

a very practical sort too. He believed in direct and specific 
answers to prayer, of which he had frequent and unmistak- 
able experiences, and in the interposition of God in matters 
unseen and unknown by us until the need, and the divine 
hand supplying it, are revealed to us at the same time. 
Once the old building in Water Street needed some repairs, 
and when the plaster had been stripped off the ceiling, 
showing the ends of the beams all rotted away, Jerry said, 
" It seems as though God's hand held up that old second 
floor, for there was nothing else to hold it up ;" and he be- 
lieved it. 



He was very persistent in whatever he undertook, in 
accordance with what he believed to be the will of the 
Lord. His obstinacy in the pursuit of anything to which 
he was persuaded that God had called him was beyond the 
power of human persuasion or reasoning to overcome. 

When he felt that his work in Water Street was done, 
and that he was called to labor up-town, I did not think 
it was wise for him to leave Water Street, broken in health 
as he was, and assume the responsibilities and labors of a 
new enterprise ; and I earnestly and honestly opposed it. 
But notwithstanding his love for me and his respect for my 
opinions my disapproval did not cause him to falter or 
waver for a moment, and the Cremorne Mission was the 
result. 

I was afterwards glad to see and to acknowledge that 
Jerry's divinely-guided impulses were right, and that what 
I thought my cool-headed judgment was wrong. 



^ His work and its influences were not limited to any par- 
ticular class. His principal aim was the salvation of out- 



All at One Foiintam, 173 

cast men and women ; for this he labored and thought and 
prayed ; but his work had a reflex influence which spread 
out through all classes, and by means of it hundreds of 
refined and cultivated people were led to Christ, and a mul- 
titude of Christians were aroused and animated to higher 
and better lives, and to more earnest and believing work 
for Jesus. 

He used to say, after exhorting the drunkards and those 
low down in sin to come to Jesus and be saved, and calling 
on the Christian people present to pray for them, " and 
don't let us forget the kid-glove sinners, who need it as bad 
as any of these poor fellows." ''God is no respecter of 
persons," was one of his favorite sayings ; and nothing de- 
lighted his heart more than to see a seal-skin sacque or a 
broadcloth coat, at the bench side by side with an old red 
shirt or a ragged and dishevelled dress, the wearers of both 
taking in the water of life from the same fountain. 



Jerry's public speaking was often a curious mixture of 
pathos and wit, quotations from Scripture, and the vernacu- 
lar slang of the class whom he addressed. The conventional 
notions of propriety of refined and fastidious Christians 
were sometimes startled and shocked by his quaint and 
blunt speech, his mimicry, his total disregard of the tones 
and manner which they had previously regarded as insepa- 
rable from proper and becoming religious speech, and his 
revelations of the sin and depravity of his past life ; but 
when they came often enough to see how all this was sig- 
nally blessed and honored of God to the salvation of men, 
their jealousy for the proprieties went down before their 
interest in the results. 

I have frequently seen Christians restless and ill at ease, 



174 Jerrys Touching Prayers. 

and manifestly disturbed, as they listened for the first time 
to one of his characteristic exhortations or testimonies, and 
afterwards melted to tears, and swept into resistless sym- 
pathy with him, his work, his methods and all, as they 
listened to one of his indescribably tender and touching 
prayers over some sobbing penitent, and felt themselves 
borne by it nearer to the cross of Christ and the gate of 
heaven, than the studied rhetoric of the pulpit or the 
dignified propriety of a church prayer-meeting had ever 
brought them. 



Jerrys Characteristics, 175 



CHAPTER XVI. 
MR. hatch's '"KY.(ZO\A.Y.ci:\o^^r —Concluded, 

" Grace all the work shall crown, 
Through everlasting days; 
It lays in heaven the topmost stone, 
And well deserves the praise." 

It would be difificult, if not altogether impossible, to so 
analyze Jerry's character or define the sources of his influ- 
ence and success as to create out of them an available model 
upon which other regenerated roughs may be moulded' 
into future Jerry McAuIeys. His downright sincerity, his 
earnestness and singleness of purpose, his indomitable 
pluck and perseverance, and his devout piety are indeed 
alike worthy and susceptible of imitation by any man, 
whatever his past record may be, who yields himself up, 
as Jerry did, to the love and service of the Lord Jesus. 

Those peculiarities and distinctive traits which went to 
make up his personality cannot be portrayed like the well- 
defined lines and curves of a mathematical figure, to be 
copied and reproduced at will. The coming transformed 
rough or criminal, who shall set out to become by imitation 
a second Jerry McAuley will probably prove a lamentable 
and ludicrous failure. He imitated no one ; he was himself 
inimitable ; he stands alone, a unique example of the Divine 
selection of material, which, in its rough state, it is safe to 
say, ninety-nine out of every hundred religious experts would 
have unhesitatingly rejected ; and of what may be wrought 



176 His Originality, 

by the grace of God and the love of Jesus out of and 
through the sort of stuff that Jerry was made of. 

It is aHke impracticable to formulate his methods, as a 
system or a plan of Christian work. He worked in his own 
way, in the only way in which it was possible for him to 
work, and in many respects as he alone could have worked 
successfully. He could not be pared down, or rounded off, 
or adjusted to any pattern set by another, or fitted to any 
conception that well-meaning friends may have entertained 
as to what he ought to be and do. He was Jerry McAuley 
by the grace of God, and as such let us be thankful for him. 

His work, and that of the missions which bear his 
name and perpetuate his influence, and the undeniable 
success which even the severest critics of their direct 
and homely way of attacking sin and saving sinners have 
been compelled to recognize, have, however, given a 
new value to methods and instrumentalities which had 
previously been contemplated by many conservative and 
over-refined Christians with grave distrust, and in some 
cases even with undisguised contempt ; and have imparted 
a new impulse to their use, in connection with missionary 
effort for the salvation of the lost and for the reclamation 
of those whom the more refined and stately ministrations of 
the pulpit have failed to reach. 

The holding of nightly meetings throughout the year 
without interruption or break, where men and women 
burdened with sin, broken down and shattered by de- 
bauchery and vice, homeless and hopeless, hungry, ragged 
and defiled, drunk or sober, fresh from the prison or the 
gutter, are welcomed, are made to feel that somebody cares 
for them and that their wretched past has not made de- 
cency and respectability in this life and salvation in the 



New Methods of Work 177 

life to come impossible to them, and are taught that 
Jesus died for them and that God loves them ; the direct, 
unconventionial, blunt presentation of religious truth, in lan- 
guage which is familiar to the classes to whom it is ad- 
aressed and the force of which they can appreciate ; the 
personal experiences and testimonies of those who have 
been saved, carrying practical conviction and hope to the 
hearts of others who are what the saved ones once were, 
and persuading them that there is salvation for them also — 
these are among the more prominent characteristics of 
Jerry's work which have been so signally honored and 
blessed of God to the salvation of many, and which have, 
through it, become more conspicuous features in missionary 
effort than ever before. 

This is especially true of the practical preaching of the 
Gospel of salvation through the personal testimonies of the 
saved ; and it has been found that, just as the personal 
witness of a blind man whose eyes have been opened is 
a more effective advertisement of the skill of the physi- 
cian who opened them, to send other blind men to him, 
than a whole volume of essays on the theory of blind- 
ness and its cure, so the sincere and simple declaration, " I 
was a drunkard, a gambler, a thief, homeless, ragged, de- 
spised and outcast, and Jesus picked me up and saved me, 
and has made me respectable and happy, filled my soul 
with peace, and opened to me the gates of Paradise," has 
infinitely more power to attract the faith of others in like 
wretchedness and despair to the Jesus who has done all 
this, than a whole library of sermons on the nature of sin 
and the theology of the plan of salvation. 

Multitudes of Christians have felt their pride of culture 

humbled, their refinements of taste in respect to religious 

13 



I "j^ Power of Testimonies, 

methods rebuked, and their sense of the power of Divine 
grace and of the superiority of infinite wisdom over human 
judgment in the selection and use of means, lifted up 
higher, as they have seen in Jerry's meetings how God has 
chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the 
wise, and the weak things to confound the mighty, and the 
base things and things which are despised, that no flesh 
should glory in his presence ; and have learned in humilia- 
tion and shame for their past fastidiousness, that it ill be- 
comes human frailty to despise or criticise or hold in light 
esteem that which God has honored and dignified. 

In explanation of many of the testimonies which are 
heard in these Mission meetings, the following extracts from 
the report of an address delivered by the writer of these 
notes, at an anniversary of the McAuley Water Street 
Mission five or six years ago, may not be out of place. 

The experience and observation of the intervening years, 
in intimate connection with work of this kind, has in no 
wise changed or modified the views then expressed. 



" Although the testimonies given in these meetings are well 
understood by those who are familiar with them and with 
the personal histories of those who utter them, occasional 
visitors from an entirely different condition in life, and ac- 
customed to quite another phase of religious experience, 
may sometimes misapprehend them and question the genu- 
ineness of the spiritual experiences of which they are the 
expression. 

" It is difficult for Christians whose position and circum- 
stances in life when converted were those of respectability 
and comfort to realize all that religion — salvation through the 
Lord Jesus Christ — means to many of these people whose tes- 



Salvation Present and PracticaL 1 79 

timonies are to be heard there. While it means to them the 
same cleansing from sin, the same inward peace, the same 
hope of heaven, that it means to others ; it means to 
many of them, in addition to all this, much more besides. 
To many of them it means, not only reconciliation to God, 
but also reconciliation to human laws and to human society. 
To some of them it means no more fear of the policeman's 
grip or the detective's stealthy tread ; no more dread of the 
prison and the gallows ; no more weeks in the Tombs ; no 
more months on Blackwell's Island ; no more dreary years 
at Sing Sing or Auburn. To them it means an honest life ; 
the confidence and trust of their fellow-men ; liberty to walk 
upright in broad day, unhunted, and without a price upon 
their heads ; and the sweetness of eating in fearless security 
the bread of honest toil ! 

"To many others it means no more dreadful carousals in 
beastly drunkenness ; no more bruised and aching heads ; 
no more smashed crockery and mutilated furniture ; a wife 
broken-hearted no more; and their children fleeing from 
them no more in terror ! It means no more journeys to the 
pawn-shop ; no more homeless wanderings in the streets by 
day; no- more sleepless nights in station-houses, or in dirty 
dens, or on the docks, or in the gutters ! 

" To these men and women salvation means decent cloth- 
ing instead of rags, cleanliness instead of dirt and vermin. 
It means parents reconciled, home restored, wife and chil- 
dren happy and smiling. It means food and raiment and 
employment and friends and self-respect, and everything 
else that makes human life comfortable and happy. We 
need not wonder, therefore, that, in attempting to tell what 
Jesus has done for them, they speak of these things. Good 
Christian people, coming as visitors to these meetings, and 



1 80 A Story Not Soon Told. 

hearing these testimonies but once, or only at long inter- 
vals, are sometimes disturbed with the fear that these men 
and women are not soundly converted. Hearing them, in 
the fulness of their gratitude, and in the warmth of their 
love, tell of the homes, the friends, the food, the clothing, 
the good wages, and the comforts of life which the service 
of God has brought to them, the stranger may sometimes 
say, ' Why, these people seem to value salvation only for the 
material comforts and rewards which it brings to them ! * 

" We who know them, and hear them often, know better 
than this. When they speak here, they are limited in their 
testimonies to one minute, in order that as many as possi- 
ble may have an opportunity to speak at each meeting. A 
man cannot tell all that he feels and knows of the love of 
God and of the blessings of salvation in one minute. One 
has to hear them ten, twenty, fifty times, before all that 
they have to tell of the goodness of God and the happiness 
of serving their new-found Master and Redeemer comes 
out. I have heard some of them testify a hundred times ; 
and each time have found that not half the story of their 
redemption had yet been told. And we who have heard 
their testimonies most frequently, and know their hearts 
and their lives best, have found that those who have the 
most grateful sense of these present blessings and material 
benefits, which the love and service of Jesus has brought 
into their lives, and who speak first and often of these 
things, have also the strongest faith in God, the sweetest 
experiences of inward peace and spiritual communion with 
him, and the brightest and most stedfast hope of eternal 
life. 

" These testimonies show that if there is one truth of the 
Gospel more clearly illustrated in the experiences of the 



// Pays in This Life. 1 8 1 

people converted in this mission than another, it is that 
*■ godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of 
the life that now is, and of that which is to come.' To the 
poor, wretched, homeless wrecks of body and soul, that 
drift into the meetings, the truth is preached in every testi- 
mony : ' It pays in this life to serve Jesus.' 

" It is of but little use to preach this truth to the well-to-do 
sinner, surrounded by wealth, friends, and all the comforts 
of life. He thinks that he already has the * promise of the 
life that now is.* Salvation means to him self-sacrifice, a 
surrender of some of the riches, pleasures, and self-indul- 
gences in which he revels. To move him to repentance and 
godliness, you must appeal to his conscience, and his duty 
to his Maker, and must turn the current of his thoughts to 
' that life which is to come.' But to many of the outcasts 
who wander into these meetings there is little need to 
preach of a heaven and a hell hereafter ; for when they come 
in sorrow and penitence to the Lord Jesus, and surrender 
themselves to Him, they are fleeing from a present hell on 
earth ; and when they are converted a heaven begins to 
them right here and now. 

" Their most frequent thoughts and expressions, therefore, 
are not so much about the penalties of sin and the rewards 
of righteousness in the life to come, as about this truth — 
which has been revealed to them — that '■ godliness is profita- 
ble unto all things, having promise of the life that noiu is' 
To them the dividing line in human existence is not so much 
the grave separating between time and eternity, as it is the 
hour in which they were lifted up out of a visible hell on 
earth, into what is to them a present heaven, and began to 
enjoy the * promise of the Hfe that now is.' 

"Afterward, when they have come to realize the terrible 



1 82 Good for Both Worlds. 

abyss of eternal woe from which the blood of Jesus has re- 
deemed them, and their hearts begin to take in some con- 
ception of the things which God hath prepared for them 
that love Him, then their faith lifts itself up and takes hold 
on eternal realities, and they learn the higher strains of the 
song of redemption. But they never cease to remember 
and to testify that it is Jesus who, in saving them from sin 
now, has saved them from the wretchedness and shame 
which sin had brought into their lives." 



The preparation of the foregoing sketch has been a labor 
of love. Its purpose, however, has not been merely to en- 
circle the head of Jerry McAuley with a glory, after the 
manner of the old masters in adorning their canvas with 
saintly figures ; nor to throw a halo of romantic interest 
around his life and work ; but rather to seek to bring into 
stronger light, if possible, some of the practical lessons 
which they suggest. 

If it shall reawaken in the heart of any lost and despair- 
ing sinner, hopes long overlaid with sin and buried out of 
sight and consciousness under the wreckage of a reckless 
and debauched life ; or if it shall give an encouraging im- 
pulse to any, who, having been born into the kingdom of 
God out of the rough places in life without education or 
previous Christian training and burdened with a sense of 
their lack of those requirements which go to make up a con- 
ventional outfit for usefulness, are sorrowfully asking *' What 
can I do for Jesus ?" ; or if it shall serve to stimulate any of the 
Christian men or women into whose hands the providence 
of God may bring it, to more believing and earnest work for 
the salvation of those whom, perhaps, they have hitherto 
considered beyond hope — its highest aim will have been 
fulfilled. A. S. H. 



In Water Street with Jerry. 183 



CHAPTER XVII. 

EVERY EVENING IN WATER STREET. 

Hark ! how the blood-bought hosts above 
Conspire to chant the Saviour's love, 
In sweet harmonious strains ! 

We'll join the song ! for we can tell 
How sovereign grace dissolved the spell, 

That kept us bound in chains ; 
And from that dear and happy day, 
How oft we've been constrained to say 

That grace triumphant reigns ! 

In the year 1880 a pamphlet entitled " Down in Water 
Street Every Evening" was prepared by Mr. William R. 
Bliss of this city. The little work gives a graphic portrait 
of the Water Street meetings as conducted by Jerry that is 
worthy of being recorded in more permanent form. That 
part of its contents has, therefore, with slight condensation, 
been copied, and is presented in the two following chapters. 
It was the custom then, as it is now, after a brief service of 
song, to offer prayer for divine blessing, and then to read 
from God's Word. This done, Jerry would introduce the 
testimonies by giving his own. These are his words as given 
in the pamphlet mentioned : 

" The meeting is now open for testimonies. Every one 
who wants to speak for the Saviour can have one minute to 
speak in. There are a good many here that have got reason 
to testify what the Lord has done for them. Now don't be 



184 Eleven Years Experience, 

afraid to do it ! Stand right up, young converts ! Jesus 
said, ' Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I 
confess before my Father in heaven.' Stand up and con- 
fess him, and it will give you a good boost towards heaven 
every time you do it. Speak short, or you'll rob somebody 
else of a chance ; long-winde'd speeches will kill a meeting 
quicker than lightning ! If any of you feel like making a 
long speech, just cut off both ends and give us only the 
middle of it ! 

" I'll tell you my experience, and I won't be long about 
it. This blessed Jesus saves me. He saves me to-night 
from being a drunkard, and a gambler, and a thief, and a 
fraud, and everything else that you can put in. He saved 
me eleven years ago ; and he saves me more to-night than 
he did then, because I've grown in grace. Bless his holy 
name forever! When I tell you that Jesus saves* me, I 
mean just what I say ! There's no sham about it ! I don't 
tell you I was a drunkard, and a thief, and a fraud, to glory 
in it. But I want you rough men to understand what Jesus 
has done for me. Yes, when I was such a miserable sinner 
that I hadn't a friend, this blessed Jesus picked me up out 
of the mud, and saved me from desiring to do those things 
which I had been doing. And he saves me now. Who 
wouldn't love the name of Jesus ? The meeting is open." 

Two or three immediately stand up to speak. 

This man, thirty-two years old, was born and brought up 
in Water Street ; became a fearless and desperate burglar ; 
and came into the chapel for the first time about two years 
ago, direct from the New Jersey State Prison. He says : 

*' If there's any unfortunate wretch here to-night, down 
deep in crime as I was, I want him to know what Jesus has 
done for me. My heart sometimes fills right up when I 



L iberty from God and Man . 185 

think about it. I've been through all kinds of sin. I never 
was intemperate. But I've been a desperate man, and I've 
committed the worst crimes. I've been twice in State prison. 
Many were the sad, sad years I've spent alone behind the 
prison bars ! I thank God that I ever came into this Mis- 
sion ! I came here looking for work. I didn't want religion : 
I wanted an honest job. I listened to the testimonies, and 
I saw that the men were in earnest ; and when Jerry gave 
the invitation to come forward for prayers, I went. I knelt 
down and prayed. I couldn't grasp the meaning of it. But 
God in mercy heard me, and how he has blessed me since ! 
When I first came in here, I had just been serving a term of 
seven years and seven months out of ten years. The man 
that went in with me got twenty years, and it was only by 
the mercy of God that I didn't get it ! 

'* But Jesus has forgiven my sins, and has made me a happy, 
peaceful, and contented man, which I never was before. 
Once I was afraid to go through the streets by daylight lest 
the first policeman I met should tap me on the shoulder 
and say, ' I want you ! ' But now I can look any man square 
in the face and feel that I am honest, and am trying to do 
what is right in the sight of God. My friends, if I didn't 
know there's a reality in this religion I'd chuck it up ! I 
wouldn't stand here talking in this way ; and my only object 
in telling this is to induce some man who has been as bad 
as I was to come to Jesus and be saved from his sins." 

A 'longshoreman says : 

"Jesus saves me to-night from being a drunkard, a gam- 
bler, a thief, and every sinful habit. He has taken the desire 
for sin away from my heart, because I ask him to do it 
every day. A little more than six years ago I and my wife 
were good-for-nothing drunkards. What we had on our 



1 86 A Home Revolutionized. 

backs when we first came into this Mission, put together, 
wouldn't have fetched fifty cents in a junk-shop. Blessed 
be God, it isn't so now! If you knew what my home was 
six years ago, and see it to-night, you'd say I've got out of 
hell into heaven ! My old friends alongshore told me they'd 
give me to hold on until I'd got a dollar to spend. But, 
blessed be God, I haven't gone back yet ! What is there to 
go back to ? Jesus keeps me, and he has sweetly kept me 
and my wife for six years and a little more. Every promise 
in the Bible has been fulfilled in my case. Although I used 
always to steal sugar regularly from vessels I was discharg- 
ing, I haven't stolen the value of one pin from any man for 
more than six years, and haven't desired to ! Blessed be 
God for this salvation ! Christian friends, pray for me." 
This man's testimony has suggested the singing of 

*' What a friend we have in Jesus, 
All our sins and griefs to bear," etc. 

His wife follows him, saying : 

'' Six years ago there was never a more degraded sinner 
than I was, to my shame be it said. My home was a drunk- 
ard's hovel, and the principal thing there was the rum-bottle. 
I kept coming to this Mission, but there was so much Ro- 
manism rooted and grounded into me that it took a long time 
for me to be willing to let Jesus in. But I can now say, 
to the glory of God, that my sins are all forgiven, and the 
past is under the Blood. In place of the rum-bottle we 
have the Bible in our home, and it isn't kept for ornament ; 
and if God calls us at any time, we are all packed up and 
ready to go." 

The young man now speaking is a steam-engineer, ac- 
customed to earn fifty dollars a month. For ten years he 



// Made a Man of Him, 187 

spent all his earnings in the rum-shops of Water Street and 
its neighborhood : 

'' I do thank God that I ever came into this Mission ! It 
has made a man of me ! I knew about it for years before I 
came in ; but I preferred to spend my evenings in those 
places on the corners over there. I never had a white shirt, 
nor an overcoat, or any comfort or happiness, before I came 
here, although I had money enough. I hadn't written my 
mother for nine years, but when I began to come here I 
wrote to her about it. I earn less wages now than I did 
when I was serving the devil ; but I have got more, because 
I don't use it to support the rum-sellers, and I don't spend 
any of it in sin. Jesus saves me and keeps me every day ; 
and oughtn't I to be thankful for it?" 

This man is a graduate of Dartmouth College, where, he 
says, he acquired his intemperate habits because he was 
allowed too much money by his parents. He has practised 
law in Massachusetts. Intemperance brought him to New 
York, and he had been entirely abandoned by all, family and 
friends, except his wife, when by chance he strolled into the 
Mission from a low grog-shop in Chatham Square, where he 
was existing : 

" It is not long that I have been coming to these meet- 
ings. When I think of what I am now and what I was last 
summer, I am astonished. I had nothing then. I have 
everything that I need now. When my last cent was gone 
I told my companion if he would go and sell my old linen 
coat we'd take a drink with the money. When he brought 
me the money I thought we had better get something to 
eat, as we had not had anything for two days. So we went 
and got two bowls of soup. That night I strayed into this 
Mission, and I have not drunk any liquor since ! The other 



1 88 A Narrow Escape. 

day I met my old companion, and he wanted to treat me. 
' What will you take? ' said he. Said I, ' I'll take a box of 
paper collars, as I need some; but no more rum for me!* 
The Lord Jesus has saved me, and I desire to serve him." 

Another who was converted here, but is now living in a 
Western town, has come in to express his gratitude : 

*' I can look back more than six years to the blessed Sab- 
bath when God first sent me into this Mission, and began 
his work in my heart. I began my drinking career on 
Broadway, then drifted into the Bowery, and had got down 
into Water Street when the Mission arms caught me. I was 
thinking about it to-day, and I shuddered as I looked and 
saw how few steps more it was to the river ! I realize how 
very narrow was my escape from destruction! God has 
been good to me in many ways, and, best of all, he has kept 
me in the straight path." 

A pale-faced man, recently from prison, says: 
" I was a criminal from boyhood. My first sentence to 
prison was when I was nine years old. I have served four 
terms in prison. When I happened to come into this meet- 
ing one night — and I was received with open arms — I was 
tired of sin, tired of eating bread and water behind the bars. 
The testimony I heard, together with the words of Mr. 
McAuley, had a reaction on my mind. I knelt down and 
prayed, and my sorrows were healed. I now have a voca- 
tion, and I love my Saviour." 

A young man who works in a printing-office follows : 
** I am only twenty-two years old. I was a drunkard four 
years: in Albany, and Boston, and this city. Being a com- 
positor by trade, I got work wherever I went. But my 
wages all went for drink, and at last I became an inmate of 
a low den in Chatham Square. For months I scarcely left 



A Sti^ange Bed and a Hard Pillow. 189 

it ; when I got stupidly drunk I went into the back room 
and slept on the floor, with forty or fifty others like myself. 
My bed was a couple of newspapers, and a cheese-box for 
a pillow. I was going such a way that I'd have turned 
up my toes in a month or two longer, if I hadn't come in 
here. One Sunday evening I thought I would go down here 
and listen to the singing. When the invitation was given to 
come forward for prayers, I went. And I went a good 
many times afterwards. I was a Roman Catholic, and it 
seemed hard work for me to get changed. But at last 
»Jesus extended his hand, and led me out of darkness into 
light. He keeps me daily by simply trusting him." 

This large man, with a beaming face, is the captain of a 
three-masted schooner : 

** It's very hard work to sit still here ! There's no one in 
this room who has more reason to bless God than I have ; 
and I should do injustice to the dear Lord if I should not 
give my testimony. I feel that I owe all that I am to-night, 
in answer to my mother's prayers. At fourteen years of age 
I went to sea, as my father had done ; and I never shall for- 
get that my mother kneeled down with me before I went 
away, and she prayed, * O Lord, keep my son from tempta- 
tion ; he goes out to take his father's place.' The dear 
Lord followed me to sea. He has saved me from sin, and 
given me a clean heart ; and he gives me the evidence, 
every day I live, that I am born of God ; that I am an heir 
of heaven ! I am so glad to recommend this same Jesus to 
every sinner. Yes; blessed be his name! He can save if we 
will only let him." 

The man now rising to speak is a steamship ofificer : 

" I thank God for ever having let me come to this Mis- 
sion. When I was a youth I went to sea, and soon learned 



1 90 A Happy Exchange, 

to sin ; I used to get drunk, and had a sore head and a sore 
heart all the time. I didn't have a friend in the world. I 
never lived right until God led me into this place. When I 
gave Jesus my heart he saved me from my sins, and they 
are no more to me. He has taken everything wicked out of 
my desires. Jesus is my Saviour, and I don't do the things 
I used to do, because he saves me. I know it is good to 
be a servant of Jesus. I know it is hard to be a servant of 
the devil. Since I've been serving God I've never had to 
look for a ship. I ought to be thankful, indeed ; and I 
hope you will pray for me. Fm far from what I ought to 
be." 

" I need thee every hour, 
Most gracious Lord," etc., 

is now sung. 

This man is a truckman for the Bridgeport steamers : 
" My testimony to-night is that Jesus saves me. I had a 
good home once, and a good mother who prayed for me. 
But I slammed the door in her face ; and for nine years I 
gave all my earnings to the gin-mills, and had to go a-beg- 
ging and to prison. I heard about this Mission one night 
in a thieves' den in the Bowery. I wasn't sober when I first 
came in here. The clothes I had on — some belonged to my 
father and some to my brother. I didn't suppose I was 
worth saving. I didn't know that anybody cared for me. 
I heard the testimonies of men who had been drunkards and 
thieves, like as I was. I thought I'd try to get this salva- 
tion ; and I did. I went out of here that night a sober man. 
Some ladies at the door shook hands with me and asked me 
to come again. It touched my heart. I hadn't received 
any such kindness since I left my mother. For nearly three 
years now I've had the evidence in my heart that I am 



Heard His Own Life Described. 191 

saved. I have been living careless lately ; but by the help 
of God I'll live so no more." 

This young man came here from Sing Sing prison. There 
are sometimes fifteen or twenty men in a meeting who, like 
him, have been '' behind the bars": 

^' I am one of those Christ came to save. I want to tell 
how he has saved me from my sins. When I first heard 
the testimony of these men here, telling how they were 
drunkards and thieves, and all that, I wasn't sober myself. 
I sat off there by the door. But I heard what the men 
said, and I said to myself, ' That's my life to a cent ! ' I 
was arrested in the street right opposite here, and I got 
five years in Sing Sing. I got the shower-baths, and the 
ball and chain, there. I was in a lot of fellows that tried to 
escape from prison on a raft. We got caught. One of 'em 
was shot. If I'd been shot I know I'd been in hell to-night. 
When he was a-dying he asked me to pray for him. I didn't 
know how to pray ! Never prayed in my life till I came into 
this Mission ; and when I was invited I bounced right up for 
prayers. I didn't wait. Jesus heard my prayer, and I feel 
he has saved me. I know it. I like to come to the front 
and tell it now, because there are some fellows coming here 
that's just the kind I was, and I know Jesus can save 'em 
from their sins if they want to be saved. I never was happy 
till Jesus saved me." 

This is an Erie Canal boatman now speaking: 

*' I bless God, to-night, that I have got an experimenta 
religion. The religion of Jesus is a religion that I can talk 
about ! I haven't had it but a short time, but it fills me 
with joy and peace every day ; and God being my helper, I 
will tell of His saving grace as long as I live." 

Then a man rises and says in a quiet tone : 



1 9 2 Swinging His Sledge for Jesus, 

'' My dear friends : I want to say that when I first came 
in here, about four years ago, I was a poor lost drunkard,, 
without a coat to my back or shoes to my feet. I know I 
was a nuisance everywhere. I wasn't worth ten cents ; and 
I was ready to fight any man that put his fist in my face. 
But, my dear friends, it isn't so now. God has given me 
and my wife clean hearts and clean ways, and everything 
that we need, and has given me a humble and quiet spirit ; 
and he has made us civil. If a man now strikes me on one 
cheek I think I am willing to turn to him the other also, if 
thereby I can serve God. I swing my slisdge every day at 
my work with heavenly thoughts, and sometimes I forget 
my mate on the other side of the anvil, and keep striking 
as if it was one more blow for Jesus. My Christian friends, 
pray for me that I may ever be humble and faithful." 

A young man, who has spent many years in prison, says, 
in an unpretending manner: 

" I am thankful that God gives me a disposition to tell 
what he has done for me. I thank him for keeping me 
to-day in a time of temptation. I thank him for bringing 
me in here to-night, and not letting me roam around the 
streets as I used to do, committing all kinds of crimes. I 
want you all to pray for me." 

Another now rises and says: 

'' I am glad to testify that Jesus saves me from my sins. 
How thankful I ought to be! He saves me from gambling 
and the use of tobacco and rum, and from everything that is 
wicked and sinful. He makes me a clean Christian." 

He is followed by a captain of a tug-boat, saying: 

'' When I came in here a few months ago, the testimonies 
pricked me to the heart, and I didn't have any rest until I 
went to Jesus. Now I can say, ' For me to live is Christ, to 



Seamen Saved. 



193 



die is gain.* I seek his blessing and guidance every morn- 
ing before I start my boat, and every night after I have 
tied her up. I am trusting in him all the time." 

This speaker is an officer of a sailing-ship : 

"Friends," he says, "I've been following the sea all my 
life. When I wore ship and began to sail under the Lord's 
directions my shipmates said, 'You just wait and see how 
soon you'll get fetched up with a round turn.' But, thanks 
be to God, I haven't been fetched up yet ! Jesus keeps me. 
He guides me with his counsel. He is the confidence of 
the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon 
the sea." 

We sing 

"He leadeth me ! O blessed thought !" etc., 

when a sailor rises and says : 

" I've been a desperate man, but now I'm a sinner saved 
by grace. I came along here and I heard the testimonies in 
the meeting. I reckoned the men were honest, and I made 
up my mind to wear ship and sail in the Lord's service. 
Ho ! shipmates, there is no service like that ! Bless the 
Lord ! I've squared my yards by the lifts and braces, and 
I'm bound to glory now !" 

Another sailor says : 

"The first night I went away from this place I went 
aboard my ship and kneeled down in my cabin, and prayed 
the Lord to save me from my sins. And when he saved me 
I felt as my ship might feel when all the barnacles have 
been scraped off from her : I felt as if I had been scraped 
off clean inside and outside." 

Then an old woman, with an Irish accent, says : 

"This blessed Jesus saves old women too! I was a 
13 



1 94 Saves Old Women Too. 

drunken old thing, and told lies, and lived in a dirty hole, 
and had nothing. Thanksgiving night my four years w^as 
up since I first came in here. I was drunk then, but I 
haven't been drunk since, and never will be, God helping 
me! The Almighty God is good to me in everything. He 
sent me a turkey Thanksgiving Day, with money tied to the 
end of it, and I had turkey for seven days. When I came 
to Jesus I hadn't two cents in my pocket. Now, blessed be 
God ! I've got a clean home, and a carpet and pictures, and 
I wouldn't be ashamed to ask any lady to come in there; 
and I've got a clean heart inside too! But I have to watch 
and pray. Mr. McAuley told me never to go to my bed 
without praying to the dear Jesus that saves us all, and to 
pray every morning ; and I do. If there's anybody here that 
don't love Jesus, they can't do better than kneel down and 
pray to him. Jesus can save you, and he can take care of 
you, too." 

A German woman, who lives on a gravel-scow, says : 
" Jesus saves me, too. I was a very bad woman a good 
many years. I cursed, I sold rum, and I quarrelled with 
everybody. I had a wicked temper. When the fire wouldn't 
burn in my stove, I kicked it, and I tore up my Bible, which 
I brought from Germany, to kindle the fire ! I was good 
for nothing when I came in here. But, my dear friends, 
Jesus has taken me up and forgiven my sins and made me 
happy. I wouldn't go back on Jesus ; not for fifty dollars 
a week! Jesus gives me more, because He gives me all I 
need. There's nothing good for me to have that the Lord 
doesn't give it to me. He gives me my daily bread, and 
what do we need more ? We didn't carry nothing into the 
world and we can't carry nothing out. One morning we 
had no bread, and my husband had no work. I went out 



The Basket Filled, 195 

to look for work. I ought to have taken a pail with me, 
but I took a basket, and I stood on the corner and I prayed, 
* Jesus, help me ! * Then I went to Sixth Avenue, and a 
man came up and said, ' My good woman, do you want 
some work? ' I said, * Yes, sir.' He said, ' What have you 
got a basket for?* I said, ' I don't know; but my husband 
has no work and nothing to eat.' He said, ' Can you scrub 
my store ? * I said, * Yes, sir.* When I got through he filled 
up my basket with bread and potatoes, and he put on top 
a leg of mutton, and told me to come to-morrow! Jesus 
takes care of us. ,He gives me a good home, and he makes 
me and my husband happy all the time." 



196 More Strains of Rejoicing, 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

WATER STREET U'EY.TmG—Coflcluded, 

" He loveth me; O joy divine ! 

Celestial light doth round me shine, 
And though unworthy I may be, 
I know that Jesus loveth me." 

The man now speaking is a truckman : 

*' I was once as bad a man as there was in this ward. 
But I had a praying mother, and God heard her prayers at 
last, when I got so low that I couldn't help myself. I had 
plenty of money once, but I spent it all for rum. When I 
first came into this Mission I was without a dollar, without 
a friend, and without a home. I had nothing but hard 
knocks ; but Fve got a good home now, and everything I 
need. I have made some sad falls since I began to serve 
the Lord, but I trust I have been forgiven." 

A young man says : 

*' I thank the Lord Jesus that he saves me to-night from 
being in a rum-shop, or down in a ditch with somebody 
beating my eyes out. He gives me a desire to be with 
God's people." 

Immediately another says, with tears in his eyes : 

•'When I first came in here I wasn't fit to be seen. I was 
a perfect wreck. Nobody would have anything to do with 
me — not even my family. I was such an outcast. But 
Jesus has saved me, and kept me now nearly two years. 



He Read the Testimonies, 197 

What a Saviour that is who takes you up after everybody 
else has thrown you down! I'^m so thankful to him! I 
wonder at myself when I think of the change the blessed 
Jesus has made in me and my home. He has given me a 
home that's a perfect heaven on earth !" 
Then another young man says: 

"I never shall forget the night of October 18, 1879, when 
the Lord Jesus gave me a new heart in this room. He has 
suppressed my appetite for intoxicating drinks. He helps 
me to resist temptation, and he makes my Hfe all sunshine." 
A man, who speaks with difficulty, rises and says: 
" I was brought up with the roughest men ; there was a 
gang of twelve of us ; three of 'em have been hung. I lived 
right round here ; knew all about sin ; never knew anything 
about God ; didn't care. Got up and went to bed every 
day just the same. Sometimes was cruising round all night. 
I had a little boy that died. I loved my boy; never loved 
anything else so much. I felt bad when he died ; sat look- 
ing at him in the coffin, and thought about death. Then 
somebody came along and gave me a little book what told 
about this Mission. I read two pages of testimonies; I be- 
gan to think about God. I came here to get that same re- 
ligion. I've been coming ever since. I was in the house 
that stood here in '49 — a dance-house. I was a boy thirteen 
years old then. Thank God, I have a Saviour now for 
twenty-one months. I'm sending my children to school to 
learn what their father didn't know. I'm fetching up my 
children in the fear of the Lord." 

A man rises and announces himself as a stranger: 
" I never was in here before, but going by the door I 
heard the singing, and thought I'd come in. I believe the 
Holy Spirit is working in me, and gives me courage to stand 



198 A Journalist Saved. 

up. I had a good, praying mother. I ran away from her 
nineteen years ago, when I was seventeen years old, and I 
haven't seen her since. I've been a drinker, and a wanderer 
all about the world. These testimonies touch my heart. I 
feel a desire to live a better life. I want to ask you to pray 
for me that I may be saved." 

Prayers are offered on this request ; and then we sing — 

" Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, 

Weak and wounded, sick and sore; 
Jesus ready stands to save you, 

Full of pity, love, and power; 
He is able, He is willing; doubt no'more." 

This young man has been well educated : 

" I never knew what it was to be poor, until I became a 
drunkard. I have been a journalist ; for several years I was 
proof-reader in the Government Printing Office at Washing- 
ton. I lost my position through the use of alcoholic drinks, 
and when I first came into this room — well, a scarecrow, 
with any respect for his calling, would have blushed at me ; 
would have left his place in the corn-field and walked out 
when he saw me coming! I had been on a spree for seven 
weeks ; was in rags, houseless, homeless, and friendless. I 
was impressed with the sincerity and earnestness of the 
testimonies I heard here. I found sympathizing friends 
here. To-night I rejoice in a Saviour, and have in my heart 
the evidence of sins forgiven. I am now eight weeks old in 
the Christian life, and I pray that I may be faithful to the 
end." 

This speaker is a companion of the last. They came to 
the Mission together, from a rum-shop in Chatham Square, 
where they had spent most of their time ; ten of their com- 



A Little Girl's Prayers, 199 

panions in that place have followed them here, one after the 
other, and all are living the new life. 

" It is now nearly eight weeks since I gave my heart to 
God ; and when I remember all his loving-kindness to me, 
my heart is full. I was a miserable drunkard, cast off by 
my family, and had no object in life except to get money to 
spend for liquor. I came here from curiosity one evening, 
and, being vividly impressed by the testimonies, I went for- 
ward when the invitation was given, and on my knees asked 
God to forgive me for the past. He mercifully heard my 
prayer. He has taken the desire of strong drink away from 
me, and given me assurance that I am one of his children. 
Jesus is very precious to me every day. I ask to be remem- 
bered in your prayers." 

This speaker is another convert from the same place : 

" I shall never forget the night when I first entered that 
door — all broken up, good for nothing, without hope and 
without friends. I had been serving the devil for forty-two 
years. I graduated number one in his school. What did 
he do for me ? He left me without five cents in my pocket ! 
I see some of my old companions standing near the door 
there now. You needn't drop your heads down ; you 
needn't feel ashamed to be here ! It was here I first found 
hope and encouragement. 

'' If you will give me an extra minute, I would like to tell 
a short story connected with my new life : 

"About twelve months ago a motherless girl, only four- 
teen years of age, whose father was a drunken outcast on 
the streets of New York, became a Christian. Soon after, 
she called on a Christian lady, and said, *I have read in the 
Bible that where two or three are met together in Christ's 
name, there he is also. I want to ask the privilege to have 



200 A Family Made Happy, 

a prayer-meeting in your house every morning before I go 
to school, to pray for my father ; and as God may not know 
whose father we are praying for, let us repeat his name in 
every prayer.' For months they prayed, but God did not 
answer. At last, on the night of the 28th of September, 
1879, that father wandered into this Mission, and knelt weep- 
ing in penitence, asking God for Christ's sake to pardon his 
sins. That child was my daughter, and to-night I thank 
God that I have found the way of salvation." 

This man is a marble-polisher : 

'* It will take a long time to tell what Jesus has done for 
me. It's nigh three-and-twenty months since I first came 
into this Mission. I wasn't sober then. I had just stolen 
the last penny that my wife had in the house. When I 
came in that door, I thought I was coming into a sing-song 
place. My oldest girl, eleven years old, never slept on a 
bed until after I came here. The children laid down on a 
bundle of rags in the corner and got up ready-dressed in the 
morning, because they slept in their clothes. You ought to 
see my wife and children now, if you want to know what a 
change the religion of Jesus has made in my home. To- 
night Jesus saves me from being a drunkard, a gambler, and 
a thief. I thank God that I am now what he intended me 
to be — an honest laboring man. I can go through the 
streets to-night a free man in Christ Jesus." 

A young man who speaks very earnestly, says: 

" When I first came in here I was almost dragged up to the 
front; but I'm glad to come to the front now. I'm so glad 
this religion is free to all. I'm so glad it's as good for the 
drunkard as for the moral man. When God called Noah to 
make the ark, he done it just as much for the mosquito as 
for the elephant. When my mother died I was drunk. I 



Husband and Wife Testify, 20 1 

went to look at her dead body. I kissed her cold lips, but 
I couldn't shed a tear. But when Jesus showed me my heart 
I could cry. I was in prison Thanksgiving Day a year ago. 
But now Jesus saves me, and feeds and takes good care of 
me. Pray for me." 

A young man says, with emotion : 

" I shall never forget Thanksgiving night, 1879, when I 
first came in here. I was a drunkard. If I ever had a good 
thought I took a drink to wash it out. I found friends and 
the Saviour here. Now I'm drinking from heaven, and 
don't thirst any more." 

Another rises and says : 

•* I can testify to-night for Jesus, that his yoke is easy 
and his burden is light." 

Another man says : 

"When I came into this Mission, two years and eight 
months ago, I was a poor lost drunkard. I hadn't hardly 
any shoes on my feet. Now I'm not in want of shoes or 
anything else. I can't thank the dear Jesus enough for 
what he has done for me. He gives me peace and joy in 
my heart all the time." 

This man is employed in Jersey City : 

*' My dear friends, I once led a wild and reckless life. I 
came into this Mission three years ago and gave my heart 
to my Saviour. I erected a family altar in our home. It is 
a regular little paradise now. We always used to have a 
fight and tumble down before we went to bed. Now we 
always have prayers." 

His wife rises and says : 

" I thank God for the patience he had with me in my 
wicked life, and for saving me now. I praise his holy name 
to-night, and I pray that he will always keep me humble." 



202 A Poor Thief Saved, 

A young man says : 

'* I thank God when I think what I am and what I was 
eleven months ago. After trying repeatedly to save myself, 
I gave my heart to God, and he has made a new man of me. 
When I started I found the road kind of hard on account of 
being brought up a Catholic. But I learned to take every- 
thing to Jesus, and found him always ready to hear my 
prayer. I once had a strong appetite for drink, and I got so 
I couldn't earn enough to satisfy it, and I became dishonest 
and had to serve a couple of terms in prison. But I thank 
God I am a free man now in Christ Jesus." 

This man, about fifty-four years old, has spent more than 
half his life in eleven different English and American prisons. 
He says : 

"This blessed Jesus saves me from being a thief. My 
parents were thieves. When I was eight years old I was in 
the same prison with my mother and aunt. I was trans- 
ported to Van Diemen's Land for seven years, and I've got 
on my back the marks of the floggings I received there, nigh 
forty years ago, for trying to run away. I kept on stealing, 
and was sent to Australia for ten years ; and when I got out 
I was stealing again, and they sent me to Gibraltar for five 
years. I was three years in a solitary cell, and never came 
out ! God gave me health and strength, and in all the times 
I was coming out of prison I tried not to steal any more, but 
I had stealing on the brain. When I came into this Mission, 
on the 1 8th day of March, 1878, I was just down from Sing 
Sing, where I had been doing four years. But God has 
taken the desire for stealing out of my heart and put a 
better desire there ; and I haven't had a thought to steal 
since. I am trying to serve God now. I ask an interest in 
all your prayers." 



Jerry Extends the Lzvitatton. 203 

This man is a porter in a warehouse : 

" There is, therefore, no condemnation to them who are 
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the 
Spirit ; and I am glad to-night to testify that there is no 
condemnation for me ! Jesus Christ is a perfect Saviour. 
He saves me completely. I feel the truth of that in my 
heart every day, and we can all have the witness of the 
Spirit in our hearts at any time if we only let Jesus give it 
to us. I thank God that I am not knocking around this 
ward to-night, as I was three years ago, beating some fellow- 
man and spending my evenings in lager-beer saloons, drink- 
ing and cursing, and taking God's name in vain. Oh, blessed 
be God for this salvation which is free to all !" 

This man, a Swede, has been connected with the Mission's 
work for several years. He says : 

" My youth was spent in smuggling. At the age of four- 
teen I lost a beloved brother in that nefarious business, 
which changed my way of life and sent me to sea from Lon- 
don. I was convicted of sin while on board the ship Black 
Adder, in Shanghai River, after I had challenged a man to 
fight. God's Holy Spirit touched me, and I resolved to lead 
a better life. After three months the Lord sweetly forgave 
me while I was working ballast in the ship's hold at Hong 
Kong, and to-night he saves me." 

The testimonies are ended by the singing of a hymn, after 
which Jerry again speaks. He gives an invitation to all per- 
sons who are tired of sin and want to live a better life, and 
to all backsliders, to stand up and come forward towards the 
platform for prayers : 

" We're going to have prayers now. Don't you want to 
be saved to-night? Who'll stand up for prayers? There's 
one; there's two ; three; there's another! Don't be afraid 



204 He Describes His Former Self, 

to stand up. It don't make any difference what kind of 
clothes you've got on. Satan is telling some of you not to 
do it. He holds you back. I tell you Satan is no friend of 
yours. He goes round putting up all sorts of jobs on sin- 
ners ; and he makes it pretty hot sometimes. You can't get 
the best of him ! You've got to call upon the Lord for as- 
sistance if you want to get rid of your bad habits, and youVe 
got to keep asking for it till he gives it. He won't be long 
about it. * Ask and you shall receive,' is what he says. We 
need his help, every soul of us, great and small. When I 
see people who think themselves smart and cunning, dab- 
bling in sin and forgetting God, I wonder they ain't suddenly 
snapped off, squelched just where they are ! They all need 
help. Put 'em all in a bag — the rich sinners and the poor 
sinners — and shake 'em up, do you think there'd be any dif- 
ference in 'em when they came out ? 

'* You hear some people saying the Bible is a sham, and 
religion is all a hoax. Well, it may be to them, but it's 
God's power to me. Yes ! Look at me, friends ! Once I 
was a loafer and a rough. Never knew what it was to be 
contented and happy. Head on me like a mop ; big scar 
across my nose all the time ! I had an old red shirt, and a 
hat that looked as if it had been hauled up out of a tar-pot ! 
If I had a coat, it was one of the kind with the cuffs up here 
to the elbows ! split open in the back ! Latest style ! D'ye 
see ? You couldn't find any drunken rowdy on the corner 
worse-looking than I was. I cursed God ! I held up my 
hands and cursed him for giving me existence. Why had 
he put me in a hell on earth ? Why had he made me a thief 
and a drunkard, while he gave other people wealth and 
pleasure ? And then I suddenly thought that he had done 
none of those things. It was I that brought myself to what 



They Call Me Mr, McAuley. 205 

I was ! Yes, I did it myself ! I made myself a drunkard 
and a thief, and then went and accused God of it ! Oh, God 
is good, my friends ! He is wise. He is merciful. If you 
want common-sense — and who don't? — ask him for it ! 

*' Some people say, ' Ah, I'm too bad ; God wouldn't give 
me a show.' That's all a mistake ! He can save the vilest 
sinner! God will take what the devil would almost refuse ! 
The very worst people are welcome to him. Didn't he save 
the thief on the cross ? I knew a man who came here into 
this place to lick another for saying 'Jesus saves me.' Well, 
Jesus saved that very man himself. He came looking for a 
fight here, but the fight was all knocked out of him ! God 
did it. He went away like a cur trembling in a sack, and he 
became a good Christian man, and he's a Christian now. 
That's the way it is. Jesus is willing to save every one who 
asks him honestly to do it. 

'* My friends, I want to tell you that it pays to serve 
Jesus. He's a good friend. I used to hang round that rum- 
shop on the corner ; and they were glad enough to have me. 
there as long as my money lasted. But when that was gone 
— ' Jerry ! take a walk ! Take a walk around the block and 
cool off ! ' I felt the insult down in my heart. It stung me. 
But I couldn't help it ; I was such a slave to my appetite. 
I hadn't a friend in the world. But I can tell you it's not so 
now ! I have had friends and everything I need since I be- 
gan to love and serve Jesus. Just look at me 1 Do I look 
like a fraud now? I'm a new creature, inside and out! 
I'm honest, I'm clean, and respected, and happy! Why, 
those rich rum-sellers over there respect me now. They call 
me Mister McAuley ! ' Good-morning, Mr. McAuley ! ' 
They are very polite! D'ye see? I can go into a bank 
now, and the president will ask me into his private office, 



2o6 A Free Salvation, 

while the big guns have to stand outside ! ^ Sit down, sir ; 
what can I do for you ? ' And then he'll take me round and 
introduce me to the cashier ! Ha ! twelve years ago if he'd 
seen me coming into his bank he'd set the dogs on me, or 
send for a policeman to run me out ! 'Fraid I'd steal all the 
money ! Can't you see what the religion of Jesus has done 
for me ? I tell you, the religion of Jesus makes a wonderful 
change in a man. I've got good friends, and a good home, 
and a good wife. And I've got money in my pocket, besides 
a clean heart full of joy and peace ! The blessed Jesus has 
done it all. Do you want to know how to get those things? 
The Bible says how — ' Seek first the kingdom of God and its 
righteousness, and all those things shall be-added unto you.* 

" There was a time when I'd cut a man's throat for a five- 
dollar bill, and kick him overboard ! Do you suppose I'd do 
it now ? Eh ? Why not ? 'Cause I've got the grace of 
God in my heart ! Jesus saves me, and he can save any 
man. There's not a poor homeless fellow here to-night that 
isn't welcome to salvation. Jesus says, ' Him that cometh 
unto me I will in no wise cast out.' And the Bible says, 
' He tasted death for every man.' Yes ! Jesus died for 
every poor fellow that hasn't got any home or friends to- 
night ! Won't you come to him and let him save you ? 
Won't you come now ?" 

After this invitation some of the converts canvass the as- 
sembly and encourage every one to come forward for prayers 
who is inclined to do so, while all stand up and unite in 
singing a penitential hymn : 

*' Just as I am — without one plea, 
But that Thy blood was shed for me, 
And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee — 
O Lamb of God, I come." 



Some Original Prayers. 207 

All kneel down while one or two prayers are offered. 
Then each of the new-comers is asked to pray for himself. 
On such occasions fifteen or twenty poor miserable men may 
sometimes be seen on their knees — a position in which most 
of them were never seen before. 

To the suggestion to pray for themselves some of them 
reply, *' I can't !" '' I don't know how I" " I never prayed in 
my life !" '' I can't pray in English!" But when told that 
Jesus understands all languages, and that prayer is only ask- 
ing him sincerely for what they most want, and that if the 
heart is right and honest the words are of little importance, 
because he looks at the heart and not at the lips, they ex- 
claim, sometimes sobbing, "O God, save me!" "O God, 
have mercy upon me, a sinner !" '' O God, take away my ap- 
petite for rum !" '' O Jesus, I have been a very bad man. I 
want to do right; help me !" '' O Lord, scratch out my sins, 
and keep them scratched out !" " Make my bed in heaven, 
O Lord !" " O Lord, forgive the past of my life ; and bless 
my aged mother to-night, who don't know where I am !" 

Others, not knowing what to say, have repeated something 
which was taught them in childhood by religious parents. 
Evidences of early religious instruction are often revealed 
by the suppliants on these occasions — even by men who 
have become gray-haired in sin. Among the wretched men 
who for the first time prayed for themselves, was one who 
repeated the Lord's Prayer, another repeated a part of the 
Apostles' Creed, and another the infant's prayer, " Now I 
lay me down to sleep," etc. 

These words — reminiscences of a time, long ago, when a 
loving mother watched over him and prayed for him— may 
be supposed to represent what the man in his penitence 
wanted to say, but did not know how. 



2o8 The Work Goes On. 

The result of these meetings is thus constantly illustrat- 
ing the truth that every man is a sinner, and that Jesus is 
the only Saviour, and that he is able and willing to save 
immediately the vilest wretch who comes, like the leper, 
'' beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying 
unto him. If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean" 
(Mark i. 40). 



It is gratifying to be able to record the fact that the Water 
Street meeting is still carried on. Souls are saved there con- 
stantly. It is one of many flourishing memorials of Jerry's 
redemption and consecration to Christ. It is no doubt true, 

** The evil that men do lives after them ; 
The good is oft interred with their bones." 

But this is not always the case. Through God's mercy it 
is not so in the case of Jerry McAuley. There are very 
many souls, some in glory and others yet upon earth, who 
were led to Christ through his instrumentality. And this is 
not all, for, besides this, it is a blessed fact that the means 
and forces which he was permitted to put in operation for 
the salvation of lost men and women, remain and are still 
richly owned and blessed of God to that end. 



The Cremorne Mission. 209 



CHAPTER XIX. 

JERRY McAULEY'S CREMORNE MISSION. 

"We sing the love that sought us. 
We praise the blood that bought us, 
We bless the grace that brought us 
Back to the fold of God." 

In preceding pages, some account has been given of the 
change made by Jerry in his field of operations. Succeed- 
ing events have justified the step he took, although some 
of his best friends and most active coworkers did not 
advise it at the time, and indeed expressed themselves as 
doubting the wisdom of the change. They feared, no doubt, 
that the Water Street Mission would suffer, and possibly 
become extinct. But it was God's work, and God has taken 
care of it. Jerry was undoubtedly led of God to commence 
operations at No. 104 West Thirty-second Street, the 
location of the Cremorne Mission. Close to a crowded 
thoroughfare, and in a locality where sin openly abounds, 
such a beacon of warning is eminently in its place. From 
its first opening until the present time there has been an 
uninterrupted display of God's grace in saving power. 
Souls were saved at the very outset, and souls are being 
saved there now. Of course its earthly founder is missed ; 
his presence, his testimony, his personal intercourse with 
men and women, his happy way of conducting the services, 

are no more ; and in being deprived of these the Mission 
14 



2IO Mrs, McAulefs Cooperation, 

has sustained a great loss, but the work had a heavenly- 
Founder as well as an earthly one, and He remains. His 
presence is still vouchsafed. The voice of the Son of God 
is still heard, bringing the dead to life, speaking liberty to 
the bound, rest to the weary, hope and cheer to the hopeless, 
pardon to the penitent. 

God uses means. He is pleased to save souls through 
human instrumentalities, and when Jerry died the trustees 
in charge of the Mission realized that a superintendent must 
be appointed in his stead. Many friends of the cause asked 
** Who can take his place ?" To say that none could do so 
would be to limit the power of God to anoint souls for his 
work. The trustees felt that God had the agent ready, and 
so sought wisdom and direction from above. The result of 
their prayers and thought is well known. From the very 
beginning of his mission-work Jerry had found a consecrated, 
cheerful, and able helper in the person of his wife. To her 
the sacred trust, the conduct of the Mission, was com- 
mitted ; and God is blessing her labors and those of the 
many faithful and devoted helpers who seek to uphold her 
hands. With the same deep love and hunger for souls that 
characterized her husband, with never-failing tact, with 
much of Jerry's gift of keen penetration into human nature, 
Mrs. McAuley labors to the utmost of her strength in her 
unremitting efforts to win the lost. She gives her testimony 
in the meetings, as she has always done, often with tears in 
her own eyes, and often bringing tears to the eyes of her lis- 
teners. She speaks frankly of her lost condition before Jesus 
saved her. It is a sad story ; she does not glory in it : far 
from that — it is with a pang of grief and with a sense of 
humiliation that she tells it. But she feels as Jerry ever 
felt, that poor souls, hearing how she was lifted from the 



A Happy Sunday Night. 2 1 1 

depths and so royally redeemed, will take heart, and be led 
to seek the same saving grace that she found. And it is 
just in this way that her testimony and the testimonies of 
others, given in the Mission meetings, are blessed. What 
more effective sermon could he whose eyes Christ opened 
have preached than this : "■ One thing I know, that whereas 
I was blind, now I see" ? And the testimony uttered by so 
many, and so constantly owned of God to the salvation of 
souls in the Cremorne Mission, is just this : " I was lost, 
but now I am saved : Jesus has saved me." 

In this connection, as showing that God's favor is still 
vouchsafed to the work, it will be in order to introduce 
the following sketch of the services at the Cremorne Mis- 
sion. It was prepared by the writer at the time for Jerry 
McAuleys Newspaper, and is in its various features charac- 
teristic of the meetings in general. The sketch reports the 
service held on Sunday evening, November 9, 1884. It is 
copied in full. 



A CREMORNE SUNDAY EVENING. 

We have never attended a service in which the various 
parts blended more harmoniously or linked more completely 
than that of Sunday night, November 9, at the Cremorne 
Mission. The Holy Spirit was present in great power. 
There was no mere excitement, no froth, but a tidal-wave 
of blessing that carried us before it. Tears fell, for they 
could not be restrained. Strong men wept, and men and 
women smiled though their tears. So far as interest was 
concerned, there was not a dull minute. In view of the 
packed hall, we were led to wonder why ministers should 
complain of the difficulty of getting a Sabbath-evening 



212 A Backslider s Story, 

audience — as many ministers do complain. People come 
here, people of all classes, and from various quarters of the 
city. As usual on Sunday evenings, many friends were com- 
pelled to stand, yet one seat was vacant : the chair of the 
departed missionary, Jerry McAuley, has never been oc- 
cupied since his death. It stands upon the platform in the 
old place. We have no veneration for wood, but that empty 
chair, with its drapery of black, speaks volumes sometimes. 
Yes, the vacant chair has a voice — hark to its words of 
warning, "Be ye also ready I" Hark to its word of encour- 
agement, *' Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee 
a crown of life." 

After the service of song, prayer was offered and the fifty- 
fifth chapter of Isaiah was read by the leader, Mr. Corning. 
This is the chapter that opens with the call to the thirsty to 
buy and eat without money and without price. With ex- 
emplary brevity, the leader spoke of the rich blessings en- 
joyed here on past occasions, and called for testimonies from 
those who accepted Christ as their Saviour. 

" I am glad that I am able and willing and anxious to speak 
for Jesus," said the first. "Seven or eight years ago He was 
precious to my soul, and I enjoyed His love. Then an evil 
spirit seemed to take possession of me. I fell away, and be- 
came addicted to the use of strong drink. Through this I 
was separated from my wife and children. I came to New 
York, and when the past rose up before me, as it often 
would, I would drink to drown the memories. I met a 

brother, brother M , over there, and he brought me to 

his house. Then he brought me to this Mission. Each 
testimony I heard here struck me hard. I went forward to 
those chairs, but I did not get satisfied that night, and I fell 
back again. A few days ago I met brother M again, 



Walking in the Light, 213 

and he induced me to come here, and I went again as a 
seeker to those chairs. There was a great void in me until 
then, but I rejoice to be able to tell you that the void is 
filled. The love of Christ has filled it. I rejoice in him 
to-night." 

One of the hymns we had sung, '* Walk in the light," etc., 
brought another to his feet. Last night, on his way home 
from the Florence Mission, he met with drunken men lying 
in dark corners of the streets — their only sleeping-place. 
This brought to his mind his former condition. Before 
that light of which we had been singing dawned on him he 
had often slept in just such corners. He had long been a 
slave of strong drink. " Now," he added, " I look up and 
thank God that I am walking in the light, ' the beautiful 
light of God.' " The light had been growing brighter all 
along. God had taught him how to sing and to speak, to 
watch and pray. '* Pray God," he said, " to show me other 
poor drunkards that I may go to and speak about Jesus." 

Brother M , referred to by the first friend who testi- 
fied, twice essayed to speak but was prevented first by 
another testimony, then by the call for the singing of a 
hymn. "The devil," he said, ''tempted me to keep quiet, 
when I was twice prevented from speaking, but I would not 
let him beat me that way. I did everything I could when 
that brother who spoke first was serving God, years ago, to 
lead him to ruin. We were old friends. We were in the 
fire-department together, and in the army together, and, I 
may say, we went through the mill together. So it was not 
to be wondered at that I should seek to have him saved. I 
am so happy ; God has saved my soul from hell, and I 
wanted him saved too. After we left the Mission last night 
he did not feel as though God had forgiven him his sin. 



214 ^ Gallery Pray er -Meeting, 

To-night four of us went up into the gallery before the time 
for this service had come, and there we prayed that he 
might confess Christ to-night ; and he has done it." 

There was something very touching about this incident. 
The joy of the one friend at having the deep void in his 
heart filled was so evident, that it was contagious. But 

when we heard of brother M 's deep anxiety for his old 

associate's conversion, and then of this little gallery prayer- 
meeting, and saw the prompt response vouchsafed of God, 
our hearts were deeply affected. We recalled the four men 
who brought their palsied friend to Jesus, and whose faith 
was so honored of the Master. A sense .of holy awe fell 
upon the meeting. We felt that that gracious Saviour was 
most assuredly present through his Holy Spirit. 

' ' No man can truly say 
That Jesus is the Lord, 
Unless thou take the veil away 
And breathe the living Word." 

The veil had been removed, and so we knew that the Holy 
Spirit was at work among us. We reaHzed the words : 

** heaven comes down our souls to greet. 

And glory crowns the mercy-seat." 

The next speaker had known the Lord for several years. 
He meets with adversaries at his daily toil. They ask him 
why he believes in God when he cannot see any God. He 
tells them that when at sea he steered by the compass, 
though he could not see the land to which it pointed, and 
thus steering he reached the port in safety. So since he had 
steered by God's Word he had known peace and joy although 
he had not seen God face to face. 

"I know whom I have put my trust in," said another; 



A Light in Thirty-second Street. 2 1 5 

"it is Jesus Christ. Many a time I have said to Jerry 
McAuley, 'Mr. McAuley, I mean, by the grace of God, to 
keep in this way.' He would say, ' My boy, hold on to 
Christ.' Now he has fought and won, but he is not out of 
sight altogether ; I shall meet him again." 

*' I can praise God to-night. How I do praise him for 
answering my prayer for mercy ten months ago!" another 
said. 

We sang fr®m the hymn — 

" Let the lower lights be burning. 
Send a gleam across the wave," etc., 

when a convert said, " That illustrates my case. If there 
had not been a light in Thirty-second Street I should pro- 
bably have been in perdition now. Until I came here, 
eighteen months ago, my wife and family were heart-broken. 
I was a drunkard, and when I came home my wife did not 
know whether to expect a kind word or a blow. This went 
on for eighteen years. It seemed as if there was .something 
down in perdition drawing me there. Rum had so much 
the best of me that I had lost my will. How many fights 
with the devil I had ! Eighteen months ago I came here 
and was saved ; now I am able to say * no ' when tempted" to 
do wrong." 

" I thought I was as good as anybody until, as I came to 
this meeting, I discovered I was as bad as anybody," was 
the testimony of one who added, " I want to keep my light 
low that others may see it. My prayer is that God may 
keep me humble and honest." 

The next speaker came to pay a farewell visit to the Mis- 
sion. About two years and a half ago, as he and an associ- 
ate walked along Sixth Avenue, he said to his friend, '* John, 



2i6 From the Cremorne to the Congo, 

come along and let us see what kind of a place tney have 
got here," meaning the Mission. He came, and to tell the 
story in his own words, " I came five times and I was con- 
victed of sin. I saw I was in the wrong way, yet I was not 
willing to surrender to Jesus. Two years and seven months 
ago I knelt down at those chairs, and sought and found 
mercy. Further on, the Lord called me out to work for 
him, and now I am bound for the Congo. I leave next 
Saturday with a band of missionaries. Pray God to use us 
for the salvation of precious souls." It was on an Easter 
Sunday that the speaker first found peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 

At this point a verse of Hymn No. 72, in Gospel Praise 
Book, was called for, and sung with much fervor: 

•' Behold the changing autumn leaves, 
Behold the fields of ripening grain, 
Go gather in the golden sheaves, 
From valley, hill, and distant plain. 

" Then reapers haste, the skies are clear, 
The fields resound the glad refrain, 
The harvesters from far and near, 
Are gathering in the golden grain." 

"I wish that brother God speed," said Mrs. McAuley, 
" but he won't find a blacker heart in all Africa than mine 
was in this city of New York before Jesus saved me over 
fifteen years ago, and he has kept me ever since. Pray 
God to bless this brother in Africa and to bless me here." 

A brother said he had been impressed with a hymn sung 
at the church service which he attended in the morning, 
" If I've Jesus, only Jesus." It was such a comfort to him 
to know that he could take Jesus to his work with him in 



Jerry and His Text, 217 

the morning. For nearly fourteen years he had found a 
friend in Jesus. The speaker commended the decision of 
the young brother who was going to Africa. Missionaries 
did good. He remembered a missionary in Hong Kong 
whose words had produced a deep impression on him. The 
brother had a very happy experience when he was saved. 
Previous to his finding peace it seemed as though hell were 
just ready to swallow him up. It was eight o'clock one 
morning when he realized he was saved. For twelve days 
after that he hardly knew whether he was in the body or 
out, because of Christ's wonderful peace and joy in his soul. 
That same peace and joy has been experienced by another 
who told something of what grace had done for him. " There 
are no limits to the power of Christ to save," he said ; ** a 
little over thirty years ago I was with a bad crowd in Cali- 
fornia. I learned the tricks that are vain. I knew I was 
doing wrong, and I was on the wrong path until nearly five 
years ago. Then I resolved to change my course of life and 
I did it with an earnestness that God honored. Jerry gave 
me the text, ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his 
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.' 
I had schemed and planned and troubled a good deal to get 
these very things which God promised to give if I would 
obey him. I resolved from that moment out to test God's 

promise. I took a good letter to Mr. H (then the head 

of a large dry-goods establishment), but he dismissed me 
rudely, and when I left him the old nature began boiling up. 
Then I said to myself, ' This is not what I promised God.* 
Presently as I was going down the Bowery I met an old as- 
sociate, who unfolded a little scheme. He wanted me to 
take part in it, and my share in the transaction would have 
yielded me $40 in twenty minutes. But I told him I had 



2i8 A Well-scrubbed Floor, 

made a promise to God and I would stick to it if I starved, 
so I could not have anything more to do with such schemes. 
Then I met a broker who had given me many points, and he 
never gave me any information that I failed on when I used 
it. But I told him that I did not want to hear any of his 
points. I went on to the Water Street Mission, and sister 
McAuley gave me a day's work. I scrubbed the floor and 
cleaned the windows of the Mission. When I got through 
she said they were done better than ever she had had them 
done. Well, I had prayed God to instruct me as I did the 
work. Now I am doing well ; God sent me a friend who put 
me into business, lending me money. I arn prospering, and 
hope to be out of debt by next spring. From my experi- 
ence I can say, ' Put your trust in God : he'll honor it.' One 
Sunday evening a woman called for a dress my wife was 
making for her. The dress was not quite finished, for the 
buttons had to be sewn on. The customer wanted my wife 
to complete the work there and then ; but she would not do 
it because it was Sunday. Then the woman was angry and 
called my wife a thief, saying she believed the dress had 
been pawned. She then left, but next morning she came in 
again. She lived in Brooklyn, but had stayed in New York 
at a friend's house all night. She expressed her sorrow for 
her conduct on the previous day, got her dress, and paid six 
dollars for it. We found then, as we have ever since, that 
God's providences will come in when they are needed. I 
have grown in faith since I first started in this way." 

Until twenty-two years old, a gentleman said, he had been 
without God, being utterly ignorant of the Bible, never hav- 
ing read it an hour in his life. Then he was persuaded to 
seek the Lord. God opened his eyes and while he saw he 
was a sinner he saw also that he was the very sinner Christ 



So Near yet so Different, 219 

came into the world to save. For threescore years and 
three he had been a Christian and Jesus had proved more 
and more precious to him. It was grand to hear this veteran 
talk of the peace with God, the peace of soul, the absence of 
anxiety, and forgiveness, and the blessed consciousness of 
sin forgiven, and of a title to life eternal which he enjoyed. 
He commended this religion of Christ, and concluded with 
the statement that there had been too much testimony given 
that night to be neglected. 

A solemn thought was presented by another : it was the 
close proximity of the living and the dead. In these seats 
sat the saved and the unsaved. This Mission place was 
God's house ; the place next door below might well be 
characterized as hell. So there was many a one here to-night 
in whose heart there was heaven, while there was a very hell 
in the heart that beat next to him, but God's Word was, 
** He that hath the Son hath life," and those now lost had 
but a step to take to make Christ theirs and so take heaven 
for hell. Some might fear to accept Christ and start in the 
Christian way because they wondered how they could be 
Christians amid the temptations of life. But to those who 
believe in Christ God gives the power to become sons. *' I 
cannot tell you how he does it," said the speaker ; '* he 
takes away the stony heart and gives us a new heart. He 
has given me fifteen years of this life, in which I have had 
more peace and joy than I can ever tell." 

A sister said it was two years and over since she realized 
that God had forgiven her sins. She had had much forgiven. 
Addicted to the use of a strong and poisonous drug, she had 
gone far towards destroying herself. Indeed, the physicians 
told her that she had but six months to live. It was when 
in this sad state that she was laid under conviction of sin and 



2 20 From the Kitchen to Africa, 

turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. He saved her, and de- 
stroyed the power of her awful appetite. He forgave her sins 
and healed her body. She then resolved to consecrate her- 
self to the Lord, and she thought he would surely lead her 
into some Missionary service. But no : the way opened into 
a kitchen, with cooking and washing and ironing to be done. 
This was a strange, mysterious Providence. Friends told 
her she was wasting her time, but she said she believed the 
Lord had put her there. At this work she proposed to stay 
till the Lord opened a way out. This the Lord had now 
done ; she, too, was about to start for Africa, and she had 
reason to know that the domestic acts which she had been 
learning would make her useful in her new' field of labor. 

A young man told us that two years ago he came here to 
transact some business with Jerry McAuley. As he sat here 
and heard what was said he became convicted of sin and then 
sought forgiveness of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. 

All along the Christian's religion had been presented in 
glowing colors. The friends who spoke bore abundant evi- 
dence that to have the grace of Christ Jesus in the heart was 
to have a treasure indeed. In view of this there was great 
force in the words of a young brother, who, after telling us 
that God had saved him too, added, " and all this we got 
without money and without price." Great indeed is the 
wealth of the Christian inheritance — priceless in value yet 
offered without price. 

After the testimonies, an earnest appeal was made to the 
unsaved to make this the night of their surrender to Christ. 
"Do not wait for feeling: it is the devil's trick to destroy 
souls, to make you wait for feeling," the speaker said. He 
then recited some thrilling incidents that were told in a way 
not to be forgotten. By each incident some point was 



Tidings — Glad Tidings, 221 

emphasized, and the address was most solemn, tender, and 
earnest. When the opportunity was afforded, a number of 
persons raised the hand to signify that they wished to 
start on the Christian life and that they desired prayer. 
Thus the first service was brought to a close. We rejoice 
to know that some left the place rejoicing in the knowl- 
edge of their newly-found Lord and Saviour. The angels 
had work to do in *' bearing the tidings home," and there 
was joy in heaven as well as on earth, for heaven makes 
merry over the salvation of the lost. 



Some months have passed since this record was made, but 
the meetings continue with unabated interest : the prayer of 
the penitent is still heard, wanderers are reclaimed, back- 
sliders are restored, and God's free grace revealed in Christ 
is glorified. Here, too, those who are moralists, and know 
not Christ's presence in the heart, are convicted of their need 
of his salvation. The respectable and the ragged, the self- 
righteous and the sinner, bow side by side at the throne of 
grace, and are brought to know the Lord Jesus as a personal 
Saviour. 



222 Jerry McAtdeys Newspaper, 



CHAPTER XX. 

JERRY AS A JOURNALIST AND CORRESPONDENT. 

" God's grace will to the end 
Stronger and brighter shine ; 
Nor present things, nor things to come, 
Shall quench the love divine." 

In June, 1883, Jerry began the publication of a bi-weekly 
journal, which he entitled Jerry McAuleys Newspaper. Pub- 
lished every other Thursday, it was Jerry's idea that it 
should contain reports of the meetings at the Cremorne 
Mission, giving the pith of the testimonies there uttered, 
and also records of other city mission-work. The paper is 
still issued, Mrs. McAuley feeling that she could not allow 
her husband's cherished project to fail. It is dependent for 
its financial support upon the annual subscriptions of friends 
and the advertising patronage of a number of well-known 
business men who ar.e deeply interested in its welfare. 
Many copies of each issue are sent to inmates of prisons, 
penitentiaries, and other institutions. Some of those who 
have read in their prison-cells the testimonies of former con- 
victs at the Mission, have been led upon their own release 
to come there for themselves, and to seek and find the 
Saviour of the lost. Some indeed, through God's blessing 
upon the printed pages, have while yet incarcerated been 
moved to confess their sins to God, and implore divine par- 



A Silent Messenger. 223 

don. Thus while prisoners of the law of man they have 
become free men in Christ Jesus. The paper has been dis- 
tributed among the sick in hospitals, and in some instances 
the dying have learned from its columns the way of life, and 
have entered thereupon. Many earnest Christian workers 
both near and far have testified to the encouragement to 
faith derived from the reading of this journal. In moments 
of depression, when the difficulties in connection with their 
service for Christ seemed many and almost insurmountable, 
or when they wearily watched for fruit that seemed long 
coming, they have read the records of God's work at the 
Cremorne or some kindred mission, and have found their 
love for the Master's service warmed and their zeal inspired 
afresh. 

It was Jerry's hope that his "■ Newspaper" might be ac- 
corded such a hearty support that the profits might ere long 
permit of the establishment of a Home for erring but peni 
tent sisters. Here he proposed such should find a refuge 
from their lives of evil, while seeking avenues of honorable 
employment. Jerry died without realizing this wish, but be- 
queathed his desire and hope to Mrs. McAuley, who cher- 
ishes the same design. 

The journal is still conducted in accordance with Jerry's 
views. It presents the saving truths of the Gospel in an 
attractive form, and it is the conviction of those who most 
regularly peruse its contents, that the paper succeeds in the 
high aim of its editors, which is to " preach Christ Jesus, 
and Him crucified, on every page." 

Without this reference to a work which was so dear to 
Jerry's heart this memorial volume would be incomplete. 
The " Newspaper" still bears Jerry's name, and it is a con- 
stant memorial of God's grace as manifested in him. It also 



224 Jerry s Correspondence. 

carries hither and thither the glad story of Christ's saving 
grace and power as proclaimed by men and women who, like 
Jerry, have been brought out of the horrible pit and the miry 
clay, but whose feet have been placed upon the rock eternal, 
in whose mouth, as in his, has been placed the new song, 
even praise unto our God. They sing that song on earth, 
he sings it before the throne. Yet it is the same song — the 
song of Moses and the Lamb, the song of redeeming love. 



Jerry's early Hfe deprived him of the advantages of edu- 
cation ; and from this fact, and possibly in part from his very 
active disposition, he had no love for correspondence. Few 
specimens of his handwriting in any shape are in existence ; 
but while at Sing Sing he dictated some letters, a few of 
which are in the possession of a lady in this city. Jerry 
makes grateful mention of this lady and the Christian service 
she rendered him, as will be seen in Chapter I., page i8, 
where he speaks of her as Miss D ; and through her kind- 
ness we have been permitted to read these letters and to 
publish two of them. These letters show that before his 
release Jerry's spiritual life was very real. It is evident that 
he fed much upon God's Word. No doubt he there studied 
it very thoroughly, and laid large portions of its contents up 
in store. From that store he drew copiously in the after- 
days, for in his addresses and his comments upon Scripture 
he showed great familiarity with the Book. His exposi- 
tions of Scripture, always quaint and original, bore witness 
that he had reached the heart of the matter. 

Two of the letters are appended. The first was written 
to a good sister in Christ — an old lady in one of our pubhc 
almshouses; the second was addressed to the friend already 
mentioned. 



Jerry s Comfort in Prayer, 225 

Sing Sing, Feb. 3, 1863. 

Dear Sister: I received your kind letter, and read it 
with pleasure. I do assure you I am unworthy of your 
Christian love. I thank you, dear friend, for your kind sym- 
pathy for me in my present misfortune. You spoke of some 
little refreshments that I sent you. I don't remember send- 
ing you anything. I gave something to the friend that 
wrote your letter, and told her to give it to whom she 
pleased. I gave it cheerfully, because my Heavenly Father 
put it in my heart to do so ; therefore you must thank the 
kind Friend who gave you those little comforts. I wish I 
had something worth sending ; I would do so very cheer- 
fully, but the time may come when I can do so. 

You ask me to continue in prayer. My dear sister, I 
could not sleep nor eat without prayer. Prayer is the only 
source of comfort that the true Christian enjoys. Those are 
good hymns that you speak of. I have got tw6 of them at 
heart. One of them is " Jesus, lover of my soul." The 
other is " Prayer is the soul's sincere desire." I am very 
thankful to you for your prayers, and hope that they will be 
answered. You will continue to pray for me. I do indeed 
feel for you in your misfortunes, but feeling will not help 
you. I do rejoice now that you love the Lord Jesus so 
much. The friend who wrote to you told me about you, 
and spoke very highly of you. She has promised to take 
me to see you when I get out. But my hopes are discour- 
aging now, because my friends have not proceeded as I 
wished they should ; but there is no use talking now. It 
troubled me when I heard of it ; but, dear sister, if we do not 
meet on earth, I hope we shall in heaven. The day I re- 
ceived your letter, that night I knelt down and prayed that 
God would spare your life until I saw you. I had that 

15 



2 26 Learning the Bible. 

sweet assurance that my heavenly Father heard my prayer. 
I love to read my Bible. I have got by heart the following 
chapters : Timothy 6th ; Hebrews i ith and I2th ; James 1st ; 
Luke 24th; Psalms 34, 51, 88, 90, 91, 103, 119, and 143. I 
have got a great many texts, but I will not mention them. 
I have said nothing on spiritual things. I know that I 
love my dear Lord Jesus. I feel happy lately. 

Now I must bid you a good-by. Give my Christian re- 
gards to all who love the Lord Jesus. 

Yours in Christ, JERRY McAULEY. 



Sing Sing, May 11, 1863. 

Miss D . 

Dear Friend: I received your kind letter, which was 
the source of great comfort to me. I found in it sweet 
Christian counsel; all your letters have been the means of 
cheering me in my sad moments. I wish you would write 
to me often, if you feel disposed to do so. 

I read a chapter in the Bible this morning: it was John 
i6th: "Verily I say unto you, that ye shall weep and la- 
ment, but the world shall rejoice ; and ye shall be sorrowful, 
but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." This verse 
struck me forcibly, and made a deep impression on me. I 
think a great deal upon our last interview, especially about 
Abraham. You must not think for a moment that I am 
ungrateful for the many favors you so generously bestowed 
upon me. I feel indeed that I can never repay this debt of 
gratitude. Your sweet Christian advice has given me some 
encouragement, but I leave all things in the hands of my 
heavenly Father. He will do all things right. 

Dear sister, it- is my desire that you would pray much for 



Concltcsion, 227 

me I never wanted them more. Give my kind Christian 

regards to Mrs. L ; also remember me to Miss H . 

Tell her that I am very glad that she is getting well. 

Yours truly, jERRY McAULEY. 



Our task is accomplished. To God the source of all real 
good, who alone can make this volume a blessing to its 
readers, it is committed, with the ardent prayer that he will 
use it for his glory. Amen. 



THE END. 



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